Identifying Scalable and Cost-effective Approaches to Improving Parenting Practices for Young Children in Developing Settings

Last registered on December 04, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Identifying Scalable and Cost-effective Approaches to Improving Parenting Practices for Young Children in Developing Settings
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010129
Initial registration date
September 27, 2022

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
September 27, 2022, 12:05 PM EDT

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

Last updated
December 04, 2024, 1:39 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
India
Region
Uttarakhand

Primary Investigator

Name
Andreas de Barros
Affiliation
University of California, Irvine
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Alejandro Ganimian
PI Affiliation
NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Irma Arteaga
PI Affiliation
University of Missouri Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-07-01
End date
2023-11-30
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
Early Childhood Education, Child Development
JEL code(s)
C93, I21, I25, J13
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Over the past three decades, a series of studies have shown that providing mothers in developing countries with guidance on how to offer psychosocial stimulation can improve the cognitive and social-emotional outcomes of their young children over the short- and medium-term, and in some cases, their probability of employment and wages during adulthood. However, the ways in which mother training for early stimulation has been provided, - for example, through home visits, existing social programs, and mother groups—are costly and challenging to scale.

This study examines a cost-effective and easily scalable approach: brief audio recordings delivered to mothers by phone targetting beneficiaries of India’s public childcare system, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). We conduct a randomized evaluation of a program developed by an Indian non-profit (Dost Education) that provides mothers with regular audio recordings with guidance on how to offer psychosocial stimulation to children from 6 to 30 months.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Arteaga, Irma, Andreas de Barros and Alejandro Ganimian. 2024. "Identifying Scalable and Cost-effective Approaches to Improving Parenting Practices for Young Children in Developing Settings." AEA RCT Registry. December 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10129-1.3
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In the intervention, Dost will send brief audio messages to mothers of 6-to-30-month-olds with guidance on how to provide them with psychosocial stimulation. Specifically, each mother will receive 80 audio messages, each of which lasts about 1 minute, 4 times a week for a total of 20 weeks. The messages will focus on three domains within responsive caregiving: language, cognitive, motor, and social-emotional skills. Each message has the following structure: Introduce the topic and empathize, tips and activities for real life, review key strategies, and feedback via touch tone response.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2023-01-01
Intervention End Date
2023-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Child development
2. Expressive language
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
1. Child development: Caregiver Reported Early Development Index (CREDI)
2. Expressive language: An adapted version of the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
1. Home environment: Family Care Indicators (FCI) - Play Subscale
2. Maternal anxiety: General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Questions
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We plan to work in one district of Uttarakhand. We will start with the universe of centers in the sampled district and exclude centers with worker vacancies (to make sure that the worker can recruit mothers into the program) and those sharing buildings with other centers (to minimize the chances that our intervention may affect out-of-sample centers). We will sample 80-110 centers to build a study sample of 2250 mothers who have at least one child ages 6 to 30 months and a cell phone. Individually, we will randomly assign roughly half of the mothers to the treatment group to receive the program, a total of 1,125 mothers, and the remaining 1,125 mothers in the control group that receives the program at a later date.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual-level randomization within each health center
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
80-110 health centers
Sample size: planned number of observations
2,250 mothers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Approx. 1,125 mothers will receive the Dost intervention immediately, and 1,125 mothers will receive the intervention after 6 months.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
NYU Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2022-09-19
IRB Approval Number
IRB-FY2022-6453
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Registered Report

MD5: be9b964abdc5e12e5189a36b97cadb82

SHA1: 048b15ed3353f64b69644cf94b1c2a23e24df4d4

Uploaded At: May 19, 2023

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Individual-level randomization
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
1,886 students
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
950 control and 936 treatment
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
Yes
Public Data URL
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14278006

Program Files

Program Files
Yes
Program Files URL
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14278006
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
Home-visitation programs have improved child development in low- and middle-income countries, but they are costly to scale due to their reliance on trained workers. We evaluated an inexpensive and low-tech alternative with 2,433 caregivers of children aged 6 to 30 months served by 250 public childcare centers in Uttarakhand, India: automated phone calls offering parenting advice. The intervention was implemented largely as intended, with more than two-thirds of caregivers completing at least 10 calls. Yet, counter to expectations, it had negative but statistically insignificant effects on caregivers’ knowledge and interactions with their children, reduced their self-efficacy (by 0.11 standard deviations), and increased their anxiety (by 0.10 standard deviations). Consistent with this pattern, it had precisely estimated null effects on children’s development and language. An analysis of program materials suggests four reasons why the program may not have had the desired effects.
Citation
Arteaga, Irma, Andreas de Barros, and Alejandro J. Ganimian. (2024). The Challenges of Scaling up Effective Child-Rearing Practices Using Technology in Developing Settings: Experimental Evidence From India. (EdWorkingPaper: 24 -964). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/9fb8-g360
URL
https://doi.org/10.26300/9fb8-g360

Reports & Other Materials