Parental Beliefs, Investments, and Child Development : Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment
This paper experimentally evaluates a large-scale and low-cost parenting program targeting poor families in Chile. Households in 162 public health centers were randomly assigned to three groups: a control group, a second group that was offered eigh...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/191061550167761091/Parental-Beliefs-Investments-and-Child-Development-Evidence-from-a-Large-Scale-Experiment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31306 |
| Summary: | This paper experimentally evaluates a
large-scale and low-cost parenting program targeting poor
families in Chile. Households in 162 public health centers
were randomly assigned to three groups: a control group, a
second group that was offered eight weekly group parenting
sessions, and a third group that was offered the same eight
group sessions plus two sessions of guided interactions
between parents and children focused on responsive play and
dialogic reading. Three years after the end of the
intervention, the receptive vocabulary and the
socio-emotional development of children of families
participating in either of the treatment arms improved (by
0.43 and 0.54 standard deviation, respectively) relative to
children of nonparticipating families. There were no
statistically detectable impacts on other types of skills.
The treatments also led to improvements in home environments
and parenting behaviors of comparable magnitudes, which far
outlasted the short duration of the intervention. A simple
mediation analysis suggests that up to 13 percent of
treatment impacts on language, and up to 36 percent of
impacts on child socio-emotional development, can be
attributed to changes in the home environment, as well as in
nurturing and discipline parenting behaviors. |
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