Parental disability: School dropout, idleness and child labor

School dropout and child labour are associated with low socioeconomic status, as parents are keen to send offspring to the labour market to increase household income. The literature has focused primarily on impaired children but none, to our knowledge, has considered whether impaired parents are associated with children's school dropout, idleness and child labour in Mexico. Our hypothesis posits that parental disability, because of lack of parental supervision, can be related to school dropout because a greater dependence on child labour, but also to higher idleness. Using a sample of 598 children between 14 and 17 years old in the municipality of San Andrés Cholula, Puebla (Mexico), we found that parental disability is associated with increased idleness, but not with child labour. Also, the mother in the household helps preventing school dropout as well as adding paid work to school activities.

Child labour, idleness, parental disability, school dropout

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