The psychosocial impact of child labour in Jordan: a national study.

The purpose of this study was to identify the psychosocial impact of child labour in Jordan, distinguishing between the impact on working school children, nonworking school children and working and nonschooled children. More than 351 million children across the world work. Emotional, behavioral and psychiatric problems in working children are a considerable public health problem in developing countries. A descriptive, comparative, cross-sectional design was used in this study. All data were collected in 2010. A total of 4008 children aged six to 16 years were interviewed. Of these, 2093 (52.2%) were nonworking school children, 896 (22.4%) working school children, and 1019 (25.4%) working and nonschooled children. Working school children reported psychosocial problems more often than working and nonschooled children. Child labour has a negative impact on children's psychosocial health and development. These findings indicate that psychoeducational support and problem-solving programs help children to cope better with the consequences of their work and study. More effort is needed to reduce children's involvement in labour. Understanding the impact of work on child mental and social health is essential to inform policy and future research as well as to improve the lives of children.