Abstract
Background: Little information exists on injury and factors associated with injury in working youth aged 10–14 years. Most studies do not involve children younger than 15.
Methods: A cross-sectional anonymous survey was administered to middle school students in five school districts and one large urban school in October 2001.
Results: Of the 3189 working middle school students who responded to the survey, the majority were employed in informal job settings, such as working for someone in a home, newspaper delivery, and working on family farms or in family businesses. Overall, 18% of children reported being injured at work. Of those injured, 26% reported that their injury was severe enough to affect their activities for more than three days. Variables that were associated with injury included having a "near-miss" incident at work (AOR 6.61, 95% CI 4.92 to 8.89), having a co-worker injured (AOR 2.65, 95% CI 1.95 to 3.60), and being asked to do something dangerous (AOR 2.25, 95% CI 1.61 to 3.14).
Conclusions: Children are working and being injured in jobs that are not covered by existing child labour laws. Injury rates in non-covered occupations are high, warranting review of current laws.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (58.2 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Brooks D. R., Davis L. K. Work-related injuries to Massachusetts teens, 1987-1990. Am J Ind Med. 1996 Feb;29(2):153–160. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0274(199602)29:2<153::AID-AJIM5>3.0.CO;2-T. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Delp Linda, Runyan Carol W., Brown Marianne, Bowling J. Michael, Jahan Shamim Ara. Role of work permits in teen workers' experiences. Am J Ind Med. 2002 Jun;41(6):477–482. doi: 10.1002/ajim.10070. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Munshi Kaizad, Parker David L., Bannerman-Thompson Hansen, Merchant Deborah. Causes, nature, and outcomes of work-related injuries to adolescents working at farm and non-farm jobs in rural Minnesota. Am J Ind Med. 2002 Aug;42(2):142–149. doi: 10.1002/ajim.10095. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pollack S. H. Teens at work. J Adolesc Health. 1998 Jan;22(1):26–28. doi: 10.1016/S1054-139X(97)00217-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]