Child labor and sexual assault among girls in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Abstract Objective To determine the relationship between child labor and sexual assault among girls in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Methods Face‐to‐face interview using a validated questionnaire of a randomly selected sample of employed girls. Results Out of 350 girls, 316 were successfully interviewed for a response rate of 90.3%. Mean age of the girls was 14.9 ± 2.3 years and mean workday was 8.5 ± 3.8 hours/day. In 33.4% of cases the girls had no formal education, and 78.5% were not currently going to school. The sexual assault rate was 77.7%, and in 38.6% of cases the assailant was a customer. Sexual assault was more likely in girls who were younger than 12 years (OR 3.54; 95% CI, 1.38–9.14), had no formal education (OR 4.80; 95% CI, 1.63–14.16), worked for more than 8 hours/day (OR 4.43; 95% CI, 1.60–12.30), or had 2 or more jobs (OR 16.09; 95% CI, 1.20–61.70). Conclusion To reduce the risk of sexual assault, if girls are employed they should be older, work for limited hours, and not have more than one job at a time.