Cognitive skills among Nepalese child labourers

• Published in: International journal of psychology 2001-08, Vol.36 (4), p.242-250
• Main Authors: Alaraudanjoki, Esa, u.a
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Berufstätigkeit; Child labour; Cognitive skills; Empirische Untersuchung; Fähigkeit; Gedächtnis; Intelligenztest; Kind; Kinderarbeit; Kognitive Entwicklung; Nepal; Test; Vergleichsuntersuchung
• ISSN: 0020-7594; 1464-066X
• DOI: 10.1080/00207590042000164

The cognitive skills of 61 Nepalese 10 - 14-year-old working children with at least 2 years working experience (WE) were compared to two groups of children, beginners (N=29) with less that 1 year of WE and a school group (N=104) matched for age and ethnic background. All the children were tested by the Bender test, WISC-R for Arithmetic, Digit Span, and the Word Fluency Test. The main results showed that the school group was better in all the cognitive tests, except for Digit Span Backwards, where the working group had the highest average score. The second main finding shows no major differences in cognitive skills between the beginner and working groups. However, the work experience as such was related to decreasing visuoconstructive skills and improving Digit Span Forward scores. This suggests that work in the carpet factories seem to develop the verbal short-term memory functions of the children, while their visuoconstructive skills decrease by work experience. The third main finding showed that the boys were better in arithmetic skills than the girls when they had long working experience. (DIPF/orig.)