Child domestic labour and mothers’ employment in Turkey

Figures & data

Table 1. Children by age group, sex and type of work.

	Number of children (in thousands)				Engaged in economic activity (%)				Engaged in household chores (%)				Not working (%)
	1994	1999	2006	2012	1994	1999	2006	2012	1994	1999	2006	2012	1994	1999		2006	2012
Age group and sex	Turkey
Total	14,968	15,821	15,026	15,247	15	10	6	6	-	28	44	49	-	61		51	45
6–14	10,945	11,938	11,378	11,386	9	5	3	3	24	26	40	46	67	69		58	51
15–17	4,023	3,883	3,647	3,861	33	26	17	16	-	36	56	57	-	38	28	27
Male	7,628	8,021	7,677	7,775	18	12	8	8	-	15	34	42	-	73		58	50
6–14	5,584	6,054	5,809	5,794	10	6	3	3	16	15	32	41	74	79		65	55
15–17	2,044	1,968	1,868	1,981	39	31	22	22	-	14	39	43	-	55		39	36
Female	7,340	7,800	7,349	7,472	12	9	4	4	-	42	54	57	-	50		42	39
6–14	5,361	5,885	5,569	5,592	7	5	2	2	34	37	47	52	59	59		51	46
15–17	1,979	1,915	1,780	1,880	26	21	11	9	-	58	74	73	-	21		15	18
Age group and sex	Urban
Total	7,858	9,010	10,160	10,139	8	5	5	4	-	32	46	54	-	63		49	42
6–14	5,761	6,729	7,599	7,567	3	2	2	1	26	29	42	51	4,068	70		56	48
15–17	2,097	2,280	2,560	2,572	20	16	14	13	-	40	56	62	-	43		29	26
Male	4,021	4,585	5,294	5,157	12	8	7	6	-	19	37	48	-	73		56	46
6–14	2,917	3,386	3,926	3,845	5	2	2	1	17	20	36	48	2,280	78		62	51
15–17	1,104	1,200	1,367	1,312	31	23	20	19	-	17	41	48	-	59		39	33
Female	3,837	4,425	4,866	4,982	3	3	3	2	-	45	55	61	-	53		42	37
6–14	2,844	3,344	3,673	3,722	2	1	1	1	36	38	49	55	1,789	61		50	44
15–17	993	1,081	1,193	1,260	9	8	8	6	-	66	74	76	-	26		18	18
Age group and sex	Rural
Total	7,110	6,812	4,866	5,108	23	17	8	10	-	24	38	40	-	59		53	51
6–14	5,184	5,209	3,779	3,819	15	10	4	6	23	22	34	37	3,240	68		62	58
15–17	1,926	1,602	1,087	1,290	46	41	22	22	-	29	54	48	-	31		24	30
Male	3,607	3,436	2,383	2,618	25	17	10	12	-	10	26	30	-	73		64	58
6–14	2,667	2,668	1,883	1,948	16	10	5	7	15	10	24	29	1,854	80		71	64
15–17	940	768	500	669	50	43	27	28	-	9	32	32	-	48		41	41
Female	3,503	3,375	2,483	2,491	22	17	6	7	-	38	51	50	-	45		43	43
6–14	2,517	2,541	1,896	1,870	14	9	3	5	31	35	44	44	1,385	55		53	51
15–17	986	834	587	620	42	38	17	15	-	47	73	66	-	15		10	18

Source: TUIK, Child Labour Force Statistics, 1994, 1999,2006, 2012.

Table 2. School attendance of children by age and type of household.

	Households with child domestic labour				Households with no child domestic labour
	Girls		Boys		Girls		Boys
	At school	Not at school	At school	Not at school	At school	Not at school	At school	Not at school
Age 6–15	73.4	26.6	85.2	14.8	87.4	12.6	90.8	9.2
Age 16–18	30.0	70.0	56.7	43.3	60.4	39.6	70.0	30.0

Source: TDHS-2003.

Each entry represents the percentage of the corresponding gender and age group attending school at the time of the survey.

Table 3. Household chores by gender of child.

Household chore	Girls	Boys
Cooking	7.1	0.0
Setting the table	53.5	1.7
Wiping floors	43.1	0.7
Washing dishes	43.1	0.0
Ironing	40.5	1.0
Grocery shopping	3.7	1.7
Household budgeting	0.0	1.0
Paying bills	3.0	10.7
Observations	295	295

Source: TDHS-2003.

Numbers in cells reflect the percentage of cases where the task is performed by girls or boys in the sample of households where a child is responsible for at least one household chore.

Table 4. Summary statistics.

	Child domestic labour		No child domestic labour
Variable	Mean	Std. Dev.	Mean	Std. Dev.
Mother works (d)	0.45	0.50	0.36	0.36
Mother's age	35.67	4.25	32.92	32.92
Mother's years of schooling	3.51	3.22	5.62	5.62
Father's years of schooling	5.89	3.26	7.75	7.75
Grandparents in the household (d)	0.68	0.47	0.61	0.61
Household size	6.41	2.80	5.23	2.17
Oldest child female (d)	0.74	0.44	0.48	0.50
Household Income btw 0 and 150 mil. TL (d)	0.20	0.40	0.11	0.31
Household Income btw 150 and 300 mil. TL (d)	0.29	0.45	0.17	0.37
Household Income btw 300 and 450 mil. TL (d)	0.22	0.41	0.27	0.17
Household Income btw 450 and 600 mil. TL (d)	0.15	0.36	0.18	0.00
Household Income btw 600 and 750 mil. TL (d)	0.04	0.21	0.09	0.27
Household Income btw 750 and 1 bil. TL (d)	0.06	0.24	0.10	0.18
Household Income greater than 1 bil. TL (d)	0.04	0.21	0.10	0.09
Family depends on relatives economically (d)	0.05	0.22	0.07	0.10
Urban (d)	0.62	0.49	0.75	0.10
Number of observations	295		2,795

Source: TDHS-2003.

d – Denotes dummy variables.

Table 5. Bivariate probit estimation – average marginal effects.

Outcome variable	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
	Urban & Rural		Urban		Rural
	Domestic child labour	Mothers' employment	Domestic child labour	Mothers' employment	Domestic child labour	Mothers' employment
Mother's years of schooling	–0.012**	0.027**	–0.012**	0.030**	–0.011+	0.010
	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.006)	(0.007)
Father's years of schooling	–0.006*	–0.006*	–0.005+	–0.008**	–0.010+	–0.003
	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.006)	(0.006)
Mother's age	0.016**	0.010**	0.016**	0.008**	0.019**	0.012**
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.003)	(0.003)
Oldest child female	0.124**		0.104**		0.197**
	(0.015)		(0.018)		(0.029)
Grandparents in the household	–0.012	0.014	–0.025	–0.007	0.006	0.100*
	(0.016)	(0.018)	(0.019)	(0.020)	(0.036)	(0.040)
Household size	0.015**	0.009*	0.020**	0.013*	0.008	–0.001
	(0.003)	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.006)	(0.005)	(0.006)
Household Income btw 150 and 300 mil. TL	0.027		0.061+		–0.011
	(0.023)		(0.035)		(0.035)
Household Income btw 300 and 450 mil. TL	–0.048*		–0.020		–0.078*
	(0.024)		(0.033)		(0.039)
Household Income btw 450 and 600 mil. TL	–0.024		–0.003		–0.047
	(0.027)		(0.036)		(0.050)
Household Income btw 600 and 50 mil. TL	–0.085*		–0.066		–0.071
	(0.037)		(0.044)		(0.085)
Household Income btw 750 and 1 bil. (TL)	–0.030		–0.004		–0.025
	(0.034)		(0.042)		(0.084)
Household Income greater than 1 bil. (TL)	–0.024		0.027		−1.274**
	(0.041)		(0.051)		(0.109)
Family depends on relatives economically	–0.071*		–0.151**		−0.001
	(0.033)		(0.057)		(0.047)
Urban	−0.019	−0.347**
	(0.016)	(0.016)
Correlation of errors, (rho)	0.08		0.19		−0.15
Wald test of rho=0:	Pr> chi2 = 0.089		Prob > chi2 = 0.001		Prob > chi2 = 0.057
Observations	3,090	3,090	2,287	2,287	803	803

Source: THDS-2003. Average marginal effects from estimating equations (1) and (2). Omitted categories are oldest child male, income less than 150 million TL, no grandparents in the household and rural areas. Robust standard errors in brackets.

⁺ significant at 10%.

^* significant at 5%.

^** significant at 1%.