Determinants of Household Decisions on Children’s Schooling and Work: Evidence from the Sundarbans Coastal Region of Bangladesh

ABSTRACT: This study investigates the determinants of household decisions concerning children‟s engagement in work and schooling in coastal Bangladesh. Child labor remains a prevalent issue in this area as a result of a combination of economic, social, environmental and institutional weaknesses, but little empirical research brings these factors together. A cross-sectional quantitative design was used to gather data from 336 household and the data were analyzed using multinominal logistic regression as well as appropriate inferential statistical methods. The findings of the paper show that factors of household decision are significantly associated with child activity. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that economic, social and environmental factors are significantly influenced children’s work relative to the ‘Only School’ reference group that means these factors were significantly higher likelihood of child participation in work. For the school-and-work group economic (OR = 13.385, p = .00) and social factor (OR= 4.007, p < .05) emerge as the significant predictor. Conversely, institutional factor showed a consistent negative trend both categories, though it did not reach statistically significant (P > .05).