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Abstract
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Before
This study aims to understand the influence of social norms on survey responses, focusing on parenting behaviors as reported by a sample of ~2,500 parents, and the educational and job aspirations of their adolescent children in Ghana. We do so through two survey experiments. With regards to parents, we test if random prior exposure to a survey module reminding them about social image around culturally sensitive parenting behaviors leads them to report differently on their own disciplinary practices towards their children. We assess whether there is an effect of eliciting social pressure norms on parents reports of their parenting practices, in a way that aligns with their perceived social norms in the community around these behaviors. We test heterogeneity by examining differences in effects by parental gender, socio-economic status (SES), baseline social desirability bias score, and enumerator gender.
For adolescents, we assess if random prior exposure to a survey module to measure child gender attitudes leads to differential reporting on their educational and job aspirations. In doing so, we test whether making gender norms more salient leads to lower reported aspirations and/or expectations for girls, consistent with the ‘stereotype threat’ literature, and boost such aspirations for boys, consistent with the ‘stereotype boost’ hypothesis. Further, we assess whether such effects are different for younger and older adolescents; parental characteristics (SES, and gender norms beliefs); and whether they vary by the gender of the enumerator.
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After
This study aims to understand the influence of social norms on survey responses, focusing on parenting behaviors as reported by a sample of ~2,500 parents, and the educational and job aspirations of their adolescent children in Ghana. This sample is part of a larger intervention study (LEAD, Aurino et al. 2024).
We do so through two survey experiments, which we aim to investigate separately. With regards to parents, we test if random prior exposure to a survey module reminding them about social image around culturally sensitive parenting behaviors leads them to report differently on their own disciplinary practices towards their children. We assess whether there is an effect of eliciting social pressure norms on parents reports of their parenting practices, in a way that aligns with their perceived social norms in the community around these behaviors. We test heterogeneity by examining differences in effects by parental gender, socio-economic status (SES), baseline social desirability bias score, and enumerator gender.
For adolescents, we assess if random prior exposure to a survey module to measure child gender attitudes leads to differential reporting on their educational and job aspirations. In doing so, we test whether making gender norms more salient leads to lower reported aspirations and/or expectations for girls, consistent with the ‘stereotype threat’ literature, and boost such aspirations for boys, consistent with the ‘stereotype boost’ hypothesis. Further, we assess whether such effects are different for younger and older adolescents; parental SES, gender bias; and whether they vary by the gender of the enumerator.
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Trial End Date
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Before
July 31, 2024
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After
July 31, 2026
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Last Published
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December 01, 2023 04:57 AM
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After
April 09, 2026 09:01 AM
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Intervention (Public)
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Before
The intervention is the order in which adolescents receive two modules within a larger baseline survey: (1) aspirations and expectations followed by gender bias scale (comparison), and (2) gender bias scale followed by educational aspirations and expectations (intervention). Caregivers also receive two modules within a larger survey: (1) parenting questions followed by social pressure module (comparison), and (2) social pressure module followed by parenting questions (intervention).
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After
The intervention is the order in which adolescents receive two modules within a larger survey: (1) aspirations and expectations followed by gender bias scale (comparison), and (2) gender bias scale followed by educational aspirations and expectations (intervention). Caregivers also receive two modules within a larger survey: (1) parenting questions followed by social pressure module (comparison), and (2) social pressure module followed by parenting questions (intervention).
Update April 2026: we are replicating the experiment ONLY for adolescents in a new survey wave (2026), when adolescents are now aged 15 years on average to explore heterogeneity by age in the effects of priming gender norms on aspirations.
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Intervention End Date
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Before
December 22, 2023
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After
June 22, 2026
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Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
Educational and career aspirations and expectations for adolescents, self-reported disciplinary practices for parents.
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After
Educational and career aspirations and expectations for adolescents, self-reported disciplinary practices for parents.
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Primary Outcomes (Explanation)
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Before
For adolescents, four questions will be administered: (1) Imagine you had no constraints and could study for as long as you liked, or go back to school if you have already left. What level of formal education would you like to complete? and (2) Given your current situation, do you expect you will reach that level of education? (3) When you are about 25 years old, what job would you like to be doing? (4) Given your current situation do you expect you will reach that type of job?
For caregivers: Please rate each item as to how often it TYPICALLY occurs in your household. (1) You compliment your child when he/she does something well. (2) You take away privileges, forbade something [OTHER CHILD] liked (e.g., watching TV, playing with friends) when your child misbehaves. (3) You hit your child with a belt, cane, switch, or other object when he/she has done something wrong
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After
For adolescents, four questions will be administered: (1) Imagine you had no constraints and could study for as long as you liked, or go back to school if you have already left. What level of formal education would you like to complete? and (2) Given your current situation, do you expect you will reach that level of education? (3) When you are about 25 years old, what job would you like to be doing? (4) Given your current situation do you expect you will reach that type of job? Questions are sourced from Young Lives (Favara et al., 2021)
UPDATE April 2026: In this new round, we also added follow-up questions in case educational and job expectations of the adolescent are not aligned with their expectations, eliciting which educational level and job they expect to reach.
For caregivers: Please rate each item as to how often it TYPICALLY occurs in your household. (1) You compliment your child when he/she does something well. (2) You take away privileges, forbade something [OTHER CHILD] liked (e.g., watching TV, playing with friends) when your child misbehaves. (3) You hit your child with a belt, cane, switch, or other object when he/she has done something wrong
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Experimental Design (Public)
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Within-survey randomization
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Within-survey randomization
For our estimates, we are going to compare outcomes of treated adolescents and caregivers with the control group’s outcomes to estimate treatment effects. We will estimate the following ordinary least squares regressions:
𝑌(i) = 𝛽0 + 𝛽1 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 + 𝛽2X(i) + 𝜀!
Where:
𝑌(i) is the outcome of individual i, treated is the treatment status of individual i for the survey experiment, X is a vector capturing the
randomization strata within the original QP4G study and the adolescent intervention, and ε(i) is an individual error term. β1
captures our treatment effect.
We will also explore heterogeneity by selected axes, including:
• Adolescent, parent, and enumerator gender
• A measure of socioeconomic status (e.g. parent education or household poverty)
• Gender bias: Parental gender bias is measured by asking if parents agree or disagree
with the following statement: It is important that sons have more education than
daughters.
• Parental social desirability bias: as measured by Crowne and Marlowe (1960); in 2026, we have also measured adolescent social desirability bias
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Randomization Method
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Within-survey randomization
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Within-survey randomization done via Stata dofile
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Randomization Unit
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Adolescent/caregiver
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Adolescent/caregiver (2023-24 round)
Adolescent only (2026 round)
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Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
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After
As exploratory outcomes, in the April 2026 re-run of the experiment, we also added questions on expected ages to: (i) start working/supporting family; (ii) leave full-time education; (iii) get married and start living with a partner; (iv) have a child. Questions are also sourced from Young Lives (Favara et al., 2021).
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