O trabalho infantil doméstico como experiência adversa na adolescência: um inquérito de base escolar em Manaus, Amazonas

Abstract

Introduction: One of the most common types of child labor is domestic work. Domestic child labor is work done by children and adolescents at home, in activities that are harmful to their health. Despite having these characteristics, it is difficult to identify, since it is carried out with the family and there is a problem of seeing it as a type of exploitation. Objective: To investigate the occurrence of child domestic labor as an adverse experience among adolescent students in public schools in Manaus, Amazonas. Methods: This was a quantitative, cross-sectional, school-based study carried out in public schools in the urban area of the city of Manaus. The population was made up of elementary schools (6th to 9th grade) and high schools. Regularly enrolled adolescents aged 12 to 17 were included, representing a sample of 238 students, with a 95% confidence level. For data collection, prior contact was made with the schools selected. The questionnaire was pre-tested at a Civil Society Organization. The chi-square test and/or Fisher's exact test were used to analyze the association, considering a p-value ≤ 0.05. The analyses were carried out using the survey package in the Jamovi software (version 2.4.8). Results: Of the 238, the study revealed a profile of: cisgender women (62.6%) and men (32.8%). They were aged between 16 and 17 (44.1%), with an average age of 15. The race and color, brown (66.8%) who were attending the 1st year of high school (30.3%), and born in Manaus (72.3%). A proportion (64.3%) received some kind of social aid/benefit. In terms of household characteristics, (58.8%) were made up of between 4 and 6 people, with an average of 4 residents per household. The dwellings had an average of 4 rooms, 80.7% of which were houses, and 68.9% owned their own homes. The main breadwinner was the father/mother (70.2%), in the 25-59 age group (82.2%), with an average age of 59.5 years. Among these (85.7%) were workers, with complete or incomplete high school education (39.9%). The main significant findings were: the majority of child domestic work performed was between (cooking/serving food) with around (74.3%) and (p= 0.006) and (cleaning house) with (66.5%) and (p= 0.041) among cisgender women who did unpaid work for both. Another finding was the association with the variable referring to the number of rooms from 04 to 06 with the types (cleaning house) with (60.1%) and (p= 0.032) and (washing clothes) with around (59.9%) and (p= 0.021) among those who answered that they did unpaid work respectively. Among the variable, the main person responsible for the family working, the majority answered that they did unpaid work for the type of child labor (shopping) with (91.5%) and with (p= 0.004). Significance levels were found for the 16 to 17 year-old age group for child labor (looking after children) with around (40.5%) with (p= 0.009) who did unpaid work, as well as for the schooling variable of adolescents in the 1st year of secondary school (35.4%) with (p= 0.046) who did paid domestic child labor. Final considerations: We can therefore conclude that reducing child domestic labor requires visibility of the problem, an understanding of its seriousness and the adverse repercussions it has on the development of children and adolescents. For this reason, it is important to focus on identifying and combating child labor in all its forms.