Household and child correlates of child trafficking indicators in Eastern Sierra Leone

Child trafficking indicators remain highly prevalent in Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province, yet less is known about whether household-level correlates are robust when child-level variation within households is considered. This study examined household and child correlates of child trafficking indicators using baseline survey data from 2,429 households in Kailahun, Kenema, and Kono districts, including 5,999 rostered children aged 5–17. Child trafficking indicators were constructed from the survey’s operational definition, including hazardous sectors, hazardous work conditions, and force, fraud, coercion, or restriction indicators. We estimated three complementary models: a household-level logistic model estimating associations with whether any child in the household had trafficking indicators, a grouped-binomial household model estimating associations with the number of affected children out of all rostered children aged 5–17, and a child-level logistic model estimating associations with each child’s trafficking indicator status. Primary models used enumeration-area-clustered standard errors, with random-intercept models as sensitivity analyses. Overall, 49.2% of households had at least one child with trafficking indicators, and 33.8% of children had one or more trafficking indicators. Subjective economic strain was not a robust positive correlate in the primary household-level, grouped-binomial, or child-level models. In contrast, objective material wealth, school enrollment vulnerability, orphanhood, child age, and district context showed more consistent associations. In the primary household model, material wealth, having any child not enrolled in formal school, and having any orphan child were associated with higher odds of household trafficking indicators. In child-level models, older age and orphanhood were associated with higher odds, while female sex and formal school enrollment were associated with lower odds. Kono showed elevated trafficking indicators relative to Kenema in grouped-binomial and child-level models. Findings suggest that child trafficking indicators in Eastern Sierra Leone are patterned by household, child, and district context, and are not fully explained by subjective economic strain. Prevention strategies should move beyond a simple poverty-only framework and integrate school access, support for orphaned and out-of-school children, and place-based responses in higher-risk districts.