Are We Doing Enough to Prevent and Respond to Workplace Violence Against Adolescents?

Since the groundbreaking UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, substantial progress has been made in protecting children from all forms of violence and harm (including from harmful working environments and violence against children). Yet, in 2020, about 160 million children were in child labor, made up of 63 million girls and 97 million boys, representing 1 in 10 worldwide. Since 2016, the number of children in hazardous work has risen sharply to about 79 million.1 In the poorest parts of the world, increasing macro- and micro-inequalities have escalated the population of children in labor over the past decade. In much of Africa, rural-urban migration without corresponding sustainable employment opportunities, many accompanied and unaccompanied children are in work, often as street hawkers, head porters, and domestic workers.4,5 In these settings, child work remains a strong economic need.6 In addition, there are many intersecting structural factors, such as the COVID-19 and HIV/ AIDS pandemics, discrimination, and gender inequality that also may increase both the likelihood of adolescents working and the propensity for the risk of violence against children and young people.7 EFFECTS ON ADOLESCENTS This article reviews and adds to the Knight et al. study published in this issue of AJPH (p. 1651), which measured workplace violence as "self-reports of violent acts perpetrated by an employer or adult in a work-related position of authority, or by peers at the workplace" among a cohort of adolescents recruited at primary schools participating in the endline survey of a trial. To our knowledge and in concurrence with other authors (Knight, et al., p. 1651), workplace violence (measured as physical attacks, verbal threats, and sexual harassment) against adolescents is exceptionally scant, except for a few studies.12,13 Although a rich body of evidence exists on violence against children and adolescents, such as in domestic and school settings, it is only now that studies such as that of Knight et al. are emerging on the magnitude and drivers of violence in the workplace.11 In that light, we commend the authors for this important and bold attempt at bringing this to policy and programmatic attention.