Agricultural child labor: An approach from the ecological model of human development

Abstract

Child labor is considered an activity that puts the development of children1 and adolescents at risk because it involves physical effort not appropriate for their age, which distances them from activities such as school and playing with friends. In the case of the agricultural sector, the risks are greater due to contact with pesticides, risky journeys and even being part of a forced migration due to the lack of resources in the communities of origin. In this research, it was investigated if this activity reduces their integral development through a descriptive-comparative analysis in a sample of 558 children and adolescents from agricultural communities of three states of the Mexican Republic. Subsequently, a statistical prediction log it model was generated where risk patterns were identified according to age, sex and migratory status, finding that 10-year-old migrant children as well as 8-year-old children from local or settled communities are the ones who they were more likely to enter child labor. With these results, it is intended that decision makers can design strategies that promote their permanence in the classroom and with their friends and not collaborating from the illegality in the Mexican agriculture sector.