Sports for development, building cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of children in a football field. An experimental study in Barranquilla, Colombia

Last registered on July 17, 2017

Pre-Trial

General Information

Title

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0002305

Initial registration date

July 12, 2017

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

July 17, 2017, 11:33 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

Colombia

Region

South America

Primary Investigator

Name

Pilar CAF

Affiliation

CAF - Development Bank of Latin America

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Pablo Brassiolo

PI Affiliation

CAF - Development Bank of Latin America

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2015-03-01

End date

2016-06-30

Keywords

Education, Post-conflict, Welfare

Additional Keywords

Sports for development, cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, welfare, health

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This study aims to measure the impact of practicing football on a regular basis on the development of children's socio-emotional habilities, academic performance, well-being, and time-use. The intervention was implemented by Fútbol con Corazón, a non-governmental organization that promotes values and peaceful conflict resolutions through football practices. The study was carried out in nine training fields located in Barranquilla, Colombia. Training sessions took place twice per week, totalizing 16 hours per month. Excess demand made it possible for the authors randomly assign the available places among a population of eligible children (those aged 5 to 17 that lived near the training fields, and were currently enrolled in school) for 16 months. Randomization was done stratifying by training field and children's gender and age group. Total sample size consisted in 1649 children, which were assigned to the control or treatment group. The number of children assigned to each location depended on availability by the time of the evaluation. Additionally, a group of children were included in a waiting list in order to randomly replace children who were assigned to the treatment group and retired before the end of the period.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Brassiolo, Pablo and Pilar CAF. 2017. "Sports for development, building cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of children in a football field. An experimental study in Barranquilla, Colombia." AEA RCT Registry. July 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2305-1.0

Former Citation

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The intervention was implemented by Fútbol con Corazón a non-governmental organization that promotes football training as a tool for development. Training sessions took place twice per week, totalizing 16 hours per month. The total sample consisted of 1649 children who were randomly assigned to either the control (701) or treatment group (948) relying on a demand based experimental design. Additionally, a group of children were included in a waiting list in order to randomly replace children who were assigned to the treatment group and retired before the end of the period. A qualitative study was also conducted to get detailed information and prioritize dimensions that would most likely have a short run impact, and also to identify the underlying mechanisms through which these impacts would operate.

Intervention Start Date

2015-03-01

Intervention End Date

2016-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Socio-emotional habilities: self-esteem, social skills, social stress, interpersonal skills, agression, leadership, conduct problems and gender equality.

Academic performance: math and communication

Well-being: regular difficulties, health, and daily interactions

Time-use: regular and vacation activities

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The experiment design relied on a demand based design in which a population of eligible children (those aged 5 to 17 that lived near the training field and were currently enroll in school) was randomly assigned to receive the training program for 16 months. Randomization was done stratifying by training field, and children's gender and age group.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

1649 children

Sample size: planned number of observations

1649 children

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Children were randomly assigned to either treatment or control group. Additionally, a waiting list was also randomly assigned in case of desertation of children in the treatment group. The ones who were not assigned to the treatment group, were added to the control group.

701 children to control and 984 children to treatment
Bosque: 136 to control and 198 to treatment
Juan Mina: 65 to control and 65 to treatment
Minisedes: 43 to control and 52 to treatment
Nueva Colombia: 89 to control and 153 to treatment
Paz: 165 to control and 181 to treatment
Playa: 30 to control and 31 to treatment
Siape: 26 to control and 38 to treatment
Soledad: 66 to control and 105 to treatment
Villa San Pedro: 81 to control and 125 to treatment

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Total sample size: 0.22 standard deviation (SD). For children aged between 8 and 12 years old the MDE is 0.23 SD and for children aged between 13 and 17 years old the MDE is 0.3 SD

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB