Community Prevention of Child Labor: Evidence-Based Practices to Promote the Psychological Well-Being of Minors

This book discusses preventive actions that have led to reduction in the prevalence of child labor across the world over the 21^st century. It identifies exemplary programs in the area of community prevention that have had exceptional results; for example, the involvement of children in hazardous work globally being reduced by half. It documents a wide range of contexts where concerted action has counteracted social permissiveness towards child labor, including psycho-educational interventions in preventing early school leaving and conditional cash benefits which counteract family poverty. The book presents a set of evidence-based practices that are particularly useful for psychologists, educators, and social workers. More broadly, this book is also of interest to policymakers, professionals, and activists involved in child protection policy or in implementing programs to promote the psychological well-being of children.

Isidro Maya Jariego is Professor of Psychology at the University of Seville, and Principal Researcher of the Personal Networks and Communities Laboratory (HUM-059). Over the last decade, he has led the implementation of the "Educate Me First" program for the prevention of child labor in Colombia, Honduras, and Peru. This has allowed the Networks Laboratory to accumulate experience on psycho-educational intervention in communities at risk in Latin America, with the participation of international volunteer teams in development cooperation programs. Isidro Maya Jariego has published studies on typologies of personal networks, acculturation and psychological adaptation of immigrants, social cohesion in fishing communities, and implementation of programs to prevent child labor. He was the founder and coordinator of the Master's Degree in Psychology of Social and Community Intervention (2010-2013), and coordinator of the Doctoral Program "Social Intervention with the Community" (2007-2013). He has directed and participated in research projects funded by the European Commission and by national research agencies in Spain, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico, among others. He is currently a member of the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) and the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA). Since 2002 he has been the Editor of REDES. Hispanic Journal for Social Network Analysis. In his research, he combines social network analysis with community psychology.