Consecuencias del trabajo infantil en el desempeño escolar: Estudiantes latinoamericanos de educación primaria

This article investigates the effect of child labor outside the home on academic performance in reading and mathematics of Latin American primary school students in third and sixth grade. The authors used four-level models based on data from UNESCO’s Second Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study to analyze more than ninety-five thousand students in third grade and more than ninety-one thousand students in sixth grade from sixteen Latin American countries. Results show that reading and math performance are lower for children who work outside the home than for those who do not, in third grade as well as in sixth grade. Students’ performance is negatively affected in proportion to hours worked daily and number of days worked in the week.