Using a national representative sample, the China Family Panel Studies, this paper explores the influences of clan culture, a hallmark of Chinese cultural history, on the prevalence of child labor in China. We find that clan culture significantly reduces the incidence of child labor and working hours of child laborer. The results exhibit strong boy bias, and are driven by boys rather than girls, which reflects the patrilineal nature of Chinese clan culture. Moreover, the impact is greater on boys from households with lower socioeconomic status, and in rural areas. Clan culture acts as a supplement to formal institutions: reduces the incidence of child labor through risk sharing and easing credit constraints, and helps form social norms to promote human capital investment. We also employ an instrument variable approach and carry out a series of robustness checks to further confirm the findings.
Using a national representative sample, the China Family Panel Studies, this paper explores the influences of clan culture, a hallmark of Chinese cultural history, on the prevalence of child labor in China. We find that clan culture significantly reduces the incidence of child labor and working hours of child laborer. The results exhibit strong boy bias, and are driven by boys rather than girls, which reflects the patrilineal nature of Chinese clan culture. Moreover, the impact is greater on boysfrom households with lower socioeconomic status, and in rural areas. Clan culture acts as a supplement to formal institutions: reduces the incidence of child labor through risk sharing and easing credit constraints, and helps form social norms to promote human capital investment. We also employ an instrument variable approach and carry out a series of robustness checks to further confirm the findings.
Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.
"This anthology brings together basic facts and features about basic learning needs and skills of people working and living in the informal economy and presents case studies from different countries examining educational and training strategies for meeting these learning needs. It portrays the grave problems facing educational and training systems vis-á-vis informal sector workers, even as they look at holistic solutions that take into account principles of lifelong learning and innovations in informal, non-formal and formal adult learning, and show a growing awareness that education is a human right of fundamental significance to promoting decent work and humane living conditions. The size, diversity, and the strength and sheer tenacity of workers and owners in the informal sector as well as the stress on globalisation and technological changes have combined to bring about a reappraisal of the links between education and training and the informal labour market. The book looks at the interlinkages between EFA and work and takes the stance that promoting the right to basic education is crucial for overcoming oppression and indecent working conditions. Basic education in its current state is not imparting the necessary skills for entry to the labour market. In view of this gap, the case studies pose the crucial question of what essential skills and which basic learning needs have to be addressed for productive and decent work. Although this book mainly provides cases of learning programmes for the informal economy in countries in South Asia, Latin America and Egypt, the lessons learnt have much to offer to researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in other parts of the world".
Informal institutions — family and kinship structures, traditions, and social norms — are often decisive factors in shaping policy outcomes and this book advocates a pragmatic way of dealing with them.
Published in 1999. Preparation for leaving care and aftercare support, are increasingly important concerns for child care practitioners, policy makers and researchers in the UK. There are now practice imperatives and a clear legal mandate for work in both areas. This Northern Ireland study represents an important contribution to the theoretical debate surrounding these issues and offers a much-needed large-scale empirical study. Key concepts relating to adolescence, childcare careers and youth transition underpin this investigation of a broad range of young people leaving state care.
Child Development at the intersection of Race and SES, Volume 57 in the Advances in Child Development and Behavior series, presents theoretical and empirical scholarship illuminating how race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status intersect to shape children’s development and developmental contexts. Important chapters in this new release include the Implications of Intersecting Socioeconomic and Racial Identities for Academic Achievement and Well-being, The home environment of low-income Latino children: Challenges and opportunities, Profiles of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status: Implications for ethnic/racial identity, discrimination and sleep, Youths' sociopolitical perceptions and mental health: Intersections between race, class, and gender, and much more. Rather than focusing on the additive effects of race/ethnicity and SES, which is typical (and a limitation) in the developmental literature, the scholarship in this book considers how the factors and processes shaping the development of children of color can differ markedly across the socioeconomic continuum. This collection illustrates how applying an intersectional lens to developmental science can yield unique insights into the challenges confronting, and assets buoying, both minority and majority children’s healthy development. Includes contributions from renowned developmental scholars working at the forefront of their fields Presents a multidisciplinary focus that will be useful to developmental psychologists, sociologists, family scientists and those whose interests and work fall under the purview of those disciplines Examines multiple dimensions and factors shaping childhood development
Our overloaded child care system is failing children and families. The authors explain what children of different ages--and their families--need, and what kinds of programs are necessary in light of current social and economic realities.
