Characteristics of research on child labor in Latin America

The current study analyzed the characteristics of research on child labor in Latin America from 2004 to 2014. A total of 114 studies were identified in the LILACS and SciELO databases. The articles were categorized according to the concepts of field and social agents, as in Pierre Bourdieu, highlighting the authors, places of publication, objects, and discourses. An increase was observed in the research output during this period, specifically since 2006. Brazil held a dominant position in the research with 80.7% of the total publications, followed by Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico. The objects of study are mostly qualitative approaches (55.3%), and half of the articles are indexed in Qualis B1 journals or higher. However, only 14.9% of the studies had received funding. The authors have various backgrounds, featuring participation by psychologists (26.3%), nurses (17.5%), and economists (13.2%). The studies are situated in subareas of the Human Sciences, consisting of the discourses of Social and Developmental Psychology; Health Sciences, featuring epidemiological studies, based on concepts from occupational health nursing; and the subarea of Applied Social Sciences with studies in economics. The objects of studies on child labor focus their interest on its relationship to health, education, work, and social assistance, with little interdisciplinarity in the publications.