Effect of Child Economic Contribution to Farming Households’ Income in Akwa Ibom State. Nigeria

This paper examines effect of child economic contribution to farming households’ income in Akwa Ibom State. The study adopted a non-experimental design (cross sectional Survey). Data were obtained using a multi-stage sampling procedure. The study used logistic regression and propensity score matching to assess the effect of child’s economic contribution to farming households’ income in the study area. Child’s economic contributions significantly related with sex of child and parent marital status, suggesting, gender and family structure play a role in child economic contributions to households’ income. Parental Educational status, Parental monthly expenditure, Household size, Household resource deprivation status, Family socio-economic well-being and drive for economic wealth creation were found to explain child work involvement in farming households. The PSM outcome indicated that the mean difference of respondents who involved children in work and those who did not, remained the same, (0.00018). And the T test result shows that there is no significant effect between child involvement in work and child economic contribution to households’ income. In conclusion, it was discovered that there was no positive effect of child involvement in work and households’ income. Therefore, the children should be trained through school, skill programmes to develop their human capital potentials. As this is going to be the only way they can impact positively on the households and the economy at large through expertise skill. And Businesses should be encouraged to adopt ethical business practices and eliminate child labour from their supply chain. Promote the right of children and ensure that policies and practices prioritize their well-being. And the children involvement in decision making that involves them should be encouraged.