At what age should children engage in agricultural tasks?
OBJECTIVE
We compared parents' perceived-as-appropriate ages with actual-performance ages for their children engaging in selected agricultural tasks or practices, and we examined the factors associated with age discrepancy.


METHODS
We analyzed data from the Keokuk County Rural Health Study collected among parents of children age 17 or younger. Parents were interviewed separately regarding the age of their children's involvement in 14 selected agricultural tasks and their opinions about appropriate age of involvement.


RESULTS
Of the 264 families included, 86.5% with a son and 69.8% with a daughter reported having children involved in at least 1 of 14 selected agricultural tasks. The average actual-performance ages for children to be involved in any of the tasks were younger than those that parents perceived appropriate. Furthermore, in 6 of the 9 North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) that we assessed, parents' perceived-as-appropriate ages were younger than minimum ages recommended by the NAGCAT. Driving an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) was the most common task with actual-performance age younger than the NAGCAT-recommended age; 53.0% of boys (n = 106) and 36.1% of girls (n = 61) did so under the recommended age. Boys and children who live on a farm, or whose parents have been or are farmers, were significantly more likely to perform agricultural tasks at earlier ages.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest farm parents and other rural stakeholders need to be better educated and encouraged to follow the NAGCAT guidelines, and that multilevel interventions need to be developed to ensure protection of children from agricultural injury and death.
University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center, Iowa City, Iowa IA 52242, USA. jingzhen-yang@uiowa.edu
Jingzhen
J
Yang
Erin
E
O'Gara
Gang
G
Cheng
Kevin M
KM
Kelly
Marizen
M
Ramirez
Leon F
LF
Burmeister
James A
JA
Merchant
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000383:Agriculture; D002648:Child; D004651:Employment / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007484:Iowa / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D000078329:Workforce; D055815:Young Adult