Child Employment: An investigation of safety and risk.

Although the majority of school students undertake part-time employment, little research has been undertaken into the accidents and injuries that may result from their working. In the UK injury data from this group of young workers suffers from underreporting in official statistics. Although this area has a paucity of research, what little exists has indicated that a significant proportion of young workers do experience accidents and injuries in their part-time jobs. What will be reported here is a current investigation into the nature and extent of accidents and injuries suffered by young workers. The study contained three phases and employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection: a questionnaire survey, interviews and a pilot of an innovative qualitative technique along with a test-retest of this instrument. This qualitative technique facilitated the exploration of young workers’ risk perception, as previous research has found that a lower perception of risk is found among people who experience accidents. The theoretical basis for this research is the literature on adolescent risk perception applied to a novel area of occupational risk perception.

Contact Details:, Seonaid Anderson, Seonaid.Anderson@uws.ac.uk

Date posted: 27th January 2011