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Field
Last Published
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Before
March 29, 2019 01:26 PM
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After
March 29, 2019 01:31 PM
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Field
Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
Here we describe our hypotheses for the primary outcome domains and the associated outcome variables. As cash transfer programs may affect many areas of children’s lives, we cover a fairly wide range of outcome variables. A more detailed description of the outcome variables is available in the separate pre-analysis plan.
Domain 1: Children’s material well-being.
Hypothesis 1: Hajati cash transfers are labelled as an education intervention. Hence, we expect these transfers to increase household expenditure on children’s nutrition, material items, and education.
1a. Food security:
• Child reported: ate three meals yesterday, did not skip a meal yesterday, ate breakfast yesterday, did not go to bed hungry yesterday
• Household reported: WFP food consumption scale and score above average
1b. Access to basic items:
• Child reported ownership of: pair of summer shoes, pair of winter shoes, warm clothes for the winter, warm blanket for the winter.
Domain 2: Children’s schooling
Hypothesis 2a: Increased expenditures on children due to Hajati result in positive effects on school participation
Hypothesis 2b: Encouraging households to send their children back to school after the winter break lowers school dropout during the school year
Hypothesis 2c: The effects of encouraging households to send their children back to school after the winter break are stronger in households receiving Hajati cash (i.e. β_1>β_2+β_3, see equation 2 below)
2a. School expenditures and school items:
• For each child in school, household’s will be asked to report expenditures on six categories of school-related expenditures. If households cannot answer by category, they will be asked to estimate total school-related expenditures.
• Child reported (for children in school): receives an allowance to purchase lunch or snacks during schooldays, has a schoolbag, has all the stationery needed for school.
2b&c. School attendance:
• Child reported school participation
• Household reported school participation
• Teacher reported (if feasible) school participation and performance in school
• Enumerator observed (if feasible) school participation
Domain 3: Children’s psychosocial well-being:
Hypothesis 3a: Increased expenditures on children and increased school participation lead to improvements perceived social support. Children in school have more opportunities for socializing with their friends. Moreover, a child-focused program may increase adult household members care for children.
Hypothesis 3b: As a result of increased school participation (and possibly social support), children’s mental wellbeing, self-esteem, aspirations, and outlook on life improve.
3a. Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support
• Including additional questions developed by research team: My family and household members care about (i) my progress in school, (ii) my future, (iii) my health, and (iv) my feelings
3b1. Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC)
3b2. Rosenberg’s Self-esteem scale
3b3. Aspirations based on Middle Years Development Instrument
• Plans to graduate from primary school, secondary school, and college or university
3b4. Outlook on life based on Holistic Student Assessment:
• Optimism
• Trust
• Assertiveness
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After
Here we describe our hypotheses for the primary outcome domains and the associated outcome variables. As cash transfer programs may affect many areas of children’s lives, we cover a fairly wide range of outcome variables. For each subdomain, the last bullet point (in Italics) lists what we consider to be our main indicator.
Domain 1: Children’s material well-being.
Hypothesis 1: Hajati cash transfers are labelled as an education intervention. Hence, we expect these transfers to increase household expenditure on children’s nutrition, material items, and education.
1a. Food security:
* Child reported: ate three meals yesterday, did not skip a meal yesterday, ate breakfast yesterday, did not go to bed hungry yesterday
* Number of positive responses on the child reported outcomes (0/4, scaled to range from 0 to 1)
1b. Access to basic items:
* Child reported ownership of: pair of summer shoes, pair of winter shoes, warm clothes for the winter, warm blanket for the winter.
* Number of basic items owned (0/4, scaled to range from 0 to 1)
Domain 2: Children’s schooling
Hypothesis 2a: Increased expenditures on children due to Hajati result in positive effects on school participation
Hypothesis 2b: Encouraging households to send their children back to school after the winter break lowers school dropout during the school year
Hypothesis 2c: The effects of encouraging households to send their children back to school after the winter break are stronger in households receiving Hajati cash (i.e. β_1>β_2+β_3, see equation 2 below)
2a. School attendance:
* Child reported: currently in school (only for the cash arm); attended school last day school was in session
* Household reported: currently in school, missed fewer than 5 days of school during the current schoolyear
* Teacher reported (if feasible): currently in school; attended school during the last three days school was in session; regular attendance since the winter break; learning well and keeping up with the class curriculum
* Enumerator observed (if feasible): In school during spot/check
* Child reports he/she currently attends school (specification 1). Child reports he/she attended school last day school was in session (specification 2).
2b. School items:
* Child reported (for children in school): receives an allowance to purchase lunch or snacks during schooldays, has a schoolbag, has all the stationery needed for school.
* Number of positive responses on the child reported outcomes (0/3, scaled to range from 0 to 1) (0 if the child is not in school)
Domain 3: Children’s psychosocial well-being:
Hypothesis 3a: Increased expenditures on children and increased school participation lead to improvements perceived social support. Children in school have more opportunities for socializing with their friends. Moreover, a child-focused program may increase adult household members care for children.
Hypothesis 3b: As a result of increased school participation (and possibly social support) children’s mental wellbeing, self-esteem, aspirations, and outlook on life improve.
3a. Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support
* Individual items; total score (0/48);
* Additional questions developed by research team. My family and household members care about (i) my progress in school, (ii) my future, (iii) my health, and (iv) my feelings
* Indicator for total perceived social support score above average (0/1)
3b1. Happiness, World Values Survey
* Indicator for responses to the following question take the value Quite happy or Very happy (0/1). Taking all things together, would you say you are…?
3b2. Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC)
* Individual items; total score (0/60); score indicative of depression I[Total>15];
* Items re-coded to make all positive
* Indicator for depression (0/1)
3b3. Rosenberg’s Self-esteem scale:
* Individual items; Total score (0/30); score indicative of low self-esteem I[Total>15];
* Items recoded to make all positive
* Indicator for low self-esteem (0/1)
3b4. Aspirations based on Middle Years Development Instrument
* Plans to graduate from primary school, secondary school, and college or university
* Plans to graduate from secondary school (0/1)
3b5. Outlook on life based on Holistic Student Assessment:
* Optimism: individual items; total score (0/12);
* Trust: individual items; total score (0/9);
* Assertiveness: individual items; total score (0/12);
* Indicator for total optimism score above average (0/1)
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Field
Primary Outcomes (Explanation)
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Before
In principle, all outcome variables will be constructed on the full sample of children participating in the child questionnaire. For example, in the construction of the variable “attended school the last day school was in session”, we will assign the value zero both to children who are not in school and to children who are in school but did not attend on the last day.
All variables will be (re-)coded such that higher values mean more positive outcome. Items with limited variation will be excluded from the analysis. As a general rule of thumb, we will exclude variables for which 95% of observations or more have the same value. However, such items will not be excluded from standardized scales, such as the CES-DC.
Given the nature of the outcome variables, corrections for extreme values are not considered necessary. The only exception is school expenditures, and we will check robustness by top-coding at the 95th percentile.
A more detailed description of the outcome variables is available in the separate pre-analysis plan
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After
In principle, all outcome variables will be constructed on the full sample of children participating in the child questionnaire. For example, in the construction of the variable “attended school the last day school was in session”, we will assign the value zero both to children who are not in school and to children who are in school but did not attend on the last day.
All variables will be (re-)coded such that higher values mean more positive outcome. Items with limited variation will be excluded from the analysis. As a general rule of thumb, we will exclude variables for which 95% of observations or more have the same value. However, such items will not be excluded from standardized scales, such as the CES-DC.
Given the nature of the outcome variables, corrections for extreme values are not considered necessary. The only exception is school expenditures, and we will check robustness by top-coding at the 95th percentile.
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Field
Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
Domain 4: Child work
Hypothesis 4: Increased school participation and income related to children reduces child engagement in economic activities and household chores
4. Child work (child reported):
• Economic activities
• Household chores
• Hazardous economic activities
• Excessive hours of economic activities or household chores
Domain 5: Children’s exposure to violence
Hypothesis 5: Changes in children’s daily activities will change their exposure to violence
5. Exposure to non-physical and physical violence
• Any
• In school
• In the workplace
• At home
Domain 6: Migration
Hypothesis 6: Program induced changes in household income and future opportunities for children affect propensity to migrate
6. Household and/or child plan to migrate:
• Child reported
• Household reported
Domain 7: Marriage and fertility
Hypothesis 7: Program induced changes in household income and future opportunities for children affect early marriage and pregnancy
7. Marriage and fertility (child reported):
• Married since the start of the new schoolyear
• Girls only: currently pregnant and got pregnant since start of the new schoolyear
Domain 8: Household ability to pay
Hypothesis 8: Program induced changes in household income increase household ability to pay for essentials and lower household propensity to incur debt
8. Household payment ability (household reported):
• During the past three months, was the household able to pay in full for: drinking water, water other than drinking, electricity, school transportation, other education related expenditures.
• During the past three months, did the household incur new debt?
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After
Domain 1a_S. Food security:
• Household reported: WFP food consumption scale and score above average
Domain 2a_S. School expenditures:
• For each child in school, household’s will be asked to report expenditures on: (i) after school programs and tutoring, (ii) school books and stationery, (iii) school uniforms and clothing, (iv) contributions to school building or maintenance, and other related fees, (v) transport to school, (vi) other. If households cannot answer by category, they will be asked to estimate total school-related expenditures. Outcome variables will be twofold: any expenditure on the child’s education, and total expenditure on the child’s education (in JD)
Domain 4: Child work
Hypothesis 4: Increased school participation and income related to children reduces child engagement in economic activities and household chores
4. Child work (child reported):
• Economic activities
• Household chores
• Hazardous economic activities
• Excessive hours of economic activities or household chores
Domain 5: Children’s exposure to violence
Hypothesis 5: Changes in children’s daily activities will change their exposure to violence
5. Exposure to non-physical and physical violence
• Any
• In school
• In the workplace
• At home
Domain 6: Migration
Hypothesis 6: Program induced changes in household income and future opportunities for children affect propensity to migrate
6. Household and/or child plan to migrate:
• Child reported
• Household reported
Domain 7: Marriage and fertility
Hypothesis 7: Program induced changes in household income and future opportunities for children affect early marriage and pregnancy
7. Marriage and fertility (child reported):
• Married since the start of the new schoolyear
• Girls only: currently pregnant and got pregnant since start of the new schoolyear
Domain 8: Household ability to pay
Hypothesis 8: Program induced changes in household income increase household ability to pay for essentials and lower household propensity to incur debt
8. Household payment ability (household reported):
• During the past three months, was the household able to pay in full for: drinking water, water other than drinking, electricity, school transportation, other education related expenditures.
• During the past three months, did the household incur new debt?
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