Prevalence and predictors of child labour among junior public secondary school students in Enugu, Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

Background: Millions of children have been identified globally to be involved in child labour with low-income countries being mostly hit. This study was aimed at assessing child labour and its predictors among public secondary school students in Enugu metropolis. Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 332 junior secondary school students attending public secondary schools in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection and analyses were done using SPSS version 23 and STATA Software. The level of statistical significance was set at 5% p-value.Results: The prevalence of overall child labour among the respondents was high (71.7%) likewise its different categories: domestic (52.1%) and economic (34.0%) child labour. About 35.2% of the respondents worked under hazardous conditions while 8% were forced to work. Approximately 65% (236) of the respondents who have heard about child labour perceived it as wrong. They mainly worked to render financial assistance to their parents. Class of study (AOR=2.208 (95% CI: 1.199-4.066) and weekly income earned (AOR=0.316 (95% CI: 0.176-0.567) predicted child labour among the respondents. Conclusion: The prevalence of child labour among public secondary schools in Enugu was high and the predictors were the class of the respondents and the weekly income they made. This may imply that child labour in Enugu was driven by poverty as respondents who earned higher were more involved in child labour thereby calling for concerted economic and social reforms to reduce this menace.