Child Domestic Work, Violence, and Health Outcomes: A Rapid Systematic Review

Course overview

This course is based upon material published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and is available as an open-access article. Abstract: This rapid systematic review describes violence and health outcomes among child domestic workers (CDWs) taken from 17 studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries. Our analysis estimated the median reported rates of violence in CDWs aged 5-17-year-olds to be 56.2 percent (emotional; range: 13-92 percent), 18.9 percent (physical; range: 1.7-71.4 percent), and 2.2 percent (sexual; range: 0-62 percent). Both boys and girls reported emotional abuse and sexual violence with emotional abuse being the most common. In Ethiopia and India, violence was associated with severe physical injuries and sexual insecurity among a third to half of CDWs. CDWs in India and Togo reported lower levels of psycho-social well-being than controls. In India, physical punishment was correlated with poor psycho-social well-being of CDWs [OR: 3.6; 95 percent CI: 3.2-4; p less than 0.0001]. Across the studies, between 7 percent and 68 percent of CDWs reported work-related illness and injuries, and one third to half had received no medical treatment. On average, children worked between 9 and 15 h per day with no rest days. Findings highlight that many CDWs are exposed to abuse and other health hazards but that conditions vary substantially by context. Because of the often-hidden nature of child domestic work, future initiatives will need to be specifically designed to reach children in private households. Young workers will also benefit from strategies to change social norms around the value and vulnerability of children in domestic work and the long-term implications of harm during childhood. This course on child domestic workers is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. In addition, this course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their knowledge of child domestic workers. The course material includes a literature review of adverse childhood experiences may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require continuing clinical education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article that includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A significant benefit of reading research-based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field. Authors: Thi, Zimmerman, Pocock, Chan and Ranganathan Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding child domestic workers. Specifically, a professional will: Describe the long-term implications of harm during childhood that could be brought on by child domestic work Identify countries that have a higher rate of violence among their child domestic workers Recognize the impact violence can have on child domestic workers Citation: Thi, A. M., Zimmerman, C., Pocock, N. S., Chan, C. W., and Ranganathan, M. (2021). Child domestic work, violence, and health outcomes: a rapid systematic review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(1), 427.