Psychosocial Impacts of Child Work: A Framework for Research, Monitoring and Intervention

Recent initiatives to combat worst forms of child labour have made progress in identifying hazards to children's physical health and well-being. Less attention has been given to psychosocial impacts of work. The paper outlines conceptual frameworks for assessing the multiple ways that work can impact (both positively and negatively) on children's well-being; and for identifying psychosocial indicators of impact. The paper draws attention to ways that the context of children's work mediates how far potential hazards constitute a risk to children and concludes by outlining theoretical models that link characteristics of work to evidence of impact on children's psychosocial well-being.