Sweatshops Child Abuse

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Recommended: Sweatshop practices and the effects

Many shoppers around the world are unaware of where their clothes are made. It is estimated that 10% of the average North American’s clothes in their closet are made in a sweatshop (a shop or factory in which employees work for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions (Merriam Webster)). 250 million of these workers are children and they are exposed to psychical dangers/abuse everyday . However, despite the push to recognize the physical abuse that is inflicted on these children, the psychological effects can possibly be the bigger problem that the children are facing. Why is the psychological abuse inflicted on children in sweatshops more problematic? Through the satisficing theory, one is able to understand why the psychological …show more content…

When children are working in sweatshops, it interrupts their educational studies, since they are working in these factories for over 16 hours a day, leaving no time for school. Without an education, they stop learning the fundamentals of life. They are not giving themselves a chance to be able to better their life, and find a job that does not involve inhumane working hours, little pay, mental and physical abuse. Sweatshops strip children from having an education, and with that it sets them up for a challenging road ahead. Children who are working part time in these sweatshops, have been recorded to perform 12% lower than children who have an education, and the percentage is even lower for children who work full time at these sweatshops . It is also stated by forensic psychologists that these children who are removed from their education, and do not learn the fundamentals of proper behave, end up breaking the law in their teenage years, which sets up a struggle for their adolescent stage of life . Woking in sweatshops for more than 16 hours a day interferes with their cognitive development as well, since they are not able to develop the necessary skills. These sweatshops keep children in the facilities, working, that it leaves them no time to learn important life skills. These cognitive skills include thinking, logic/reasoning, memory and concentration . …show more content…

They also know that restricting children to having no education and social relationships, forces them to be apart of the production process. There is always going to be a need for workers, and being able to have many people in the factory (despite safety concerns), is a benefit to these supervisors. In some cases, supervisor use sexual abuse, in order to push women to stay in these factories. Raping the women in these sweatshops, means increasing the workers in the future, especially in developing countries. Supervisors understand the psychological and physical they enforce on their workers, and they only see it as a benefit, as they are increasing production. Relating back to the satisficing theory, these supervisors are doing what is right in the present, and is not thinking about what they are really inflicting on the child. They do understand what they are doing to the child, but do they understand how it is going to impact the child for the rest of their life? Understanding that children are vulnerable, and how they are easy to manipulate, people take advantage of that. The topic of the psychological impact on children in sweatshops is important to understand, as it sparks two things in the everyday shopper — to take a little more time to understand where their clothes are made, in order to stop this abuse on children

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