Child labor aff ects more than five million of children and adolescents in Brazil. It is mainly atributed to poverty. This article aims to study the characteristics of families with and without records of child labor registered in the Bolsa-Escola Program in Belo Horizonte city, and to compare the two groups in order to identify factors possibly associated with child labor. It is a cross-sectional study of 9,252 families that took part in the Program from 2003 to 2006. It were analyzed the characteristics of the home, the mother and family. Among the 9,252 families studied, 1,293 (13.9%) had a record of child labo r. There was positive relationship between the occurrence of child labor and the greatest number of people in the house, the absence of the husband at home, low level of maternal education, and labor market insertion of the mother. Despite the consolidation of the Program, child labor still exists in these families. In addition to poverty, other factors may contribute to child labor.
child labor; Bolsa-Escola Program; cash transfer program
