Women and Children First: Intimate Partner Violence, Children's Well-Being & Child Labour in Ecuador

Abstract

This dissertation examines the relationship between women’s ownership of economic resources, beliefs, values and childhood experiences of violence and intimate partner violence, the relationship between household chores and children’s self-assessed well-being and the intergenerational transmission of child labour. The individuals studied are Ecuadorian women and children. Chapter 2 explores whether having economic assets available to women helps protect them from intimate partner violence (psychological, physical, sexual and economic violence), taking into account the importance of beliefs, gender norms and childhood experiences of violence. While asset ownership is somewhat protective of intimate partner violence, access to money for personal expenses is strongly associated with lower likelihoods of all types of violence. ‘Traditional’ beliefs are, perhaps counterintuitively, protective of violence. Results provide compelling evidence supporting an intergenerational aspect to violence where violent family backgrounds are strongly associated with higher incidences of all types of intimate partner violence. Chapter 3 examines the effects of housework on children’s self-assessed well-being. The domestic activities that Ecuadorian children (ages 8-17) perform are negatively associated with their self-assessed well-being, both at the extensive and intensive margin of household work. Although the decreases in happiness associated with household chores may appear small in magnitude given the mean level of happiness, the effect is similar to the decrease in happiness associated with the work children perform in the labour market. Chapter 4 studies the intergenerational transmission of child labour in Ecuador. Findings show that children of parents who were child labourers themselves are more likely to combine school and work and less likely to only attend school when defining ‘child work’ according to Ecuadorian legislation (i.e., children who are illegally working violating minimum age requirements, exceeding working hour limits, whose work interferes with their schooling or who work in dangerous conditions). The intergenerational effect of child labour for Ecuadorian children remains beyond the effects of parental child labour on current family income, it depends on the type of work the children perform and it is not gender neutral.