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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Carneiro, Pedro, Galasso, Emanuela, Lopez Garcia, Italo, Bedregal, Paula, Cordero, Miguel
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
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
id okr-10986-31306
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-313062022-08-07T12:16:12Z Parental Beliefs, Investments, and Child Development : Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment Carneiro, Pedro Galasso, Emanuela Lopez Garcia, Italo Bedregal, Paula Cordero, Miguel EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT PARENTING PUBLIC HEALTH DIALOGIC READING SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 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. 2019-02-21T15:11:49Z 2019-02-21T15:11:49Z 2019-02 Working Paper 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 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8743 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Chile
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
PARENTING
PUBLIC HEALTH
DIALOGIC READING
SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
spellingShingle EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
PARENTING
PUBLIC HEALTH
DIALOGIC READING
SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Carneiro, Pedro
Galasso, Emanuela
Lopez Garcia, Italo
Bedregal, Paula
Cordero, Miguel
Parental Beliefs, Investments, and Child Development : Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Chile
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8743
description 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.
format Working Paper
author Carneiro, Pedro
Galasso, Emanuela
Lopez Garcia, Italo
Bedregal, Paula
Cordero, Miguel
author_facet Carneiro, Pedro
Galasso, Emanuela
Lopez Garcia, Italo
Bedregal, Paula
Cordero, Miguel
author_sort Carneiro, Pedro
title Parental Beliefs, Investments, and Child Development : Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment
title_short Parental Beliefs, Investments, and Child Development : Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment
title_full Parental Beliefs, Investments, and Child Development : Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment
title_fullStr Parental Beliefs, Investments, and Child Development : Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment
title_full_unstemmed Parental Beliefs, Investments, and Child Development : Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment
title_sort parental beliefs, investments, and child development : evidence from a large-scale experiment
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url 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
_version_ 1764474024553873408