Moral Education and Child Development: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Japan

This randomized controlled trial (RCT) is part of a larger project aimed at studying the disruptive effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the home and learning environment on children and its potential solutions. Children in Japan, like in many other countries, often struggle with social issues such as pressure to perform, bullying, and anxiety, which can have long-lasting negative effects on their development. The COVID-19 pandemic has further aggravated these issues as children experience a more disrupted home environment due to remote schooling and work. This study aims to examine whether raising awareness and moral education can lead to improved socioemotional skills and academic performance for children. Targeted families are randomized into a treatment that addresses different domains of child problems. Emails sent to parents provide information about social issues and suggest potential solutions. We then provide children with videos on moral education stories that promotes good moral behavior and encourage them to think and talk about these stories. The cognitive and socioemotional development of treated children will be compared to their untreated peers in the short and long run. Furthermore, we test whether the moral education story is more effective when presented by a celebrity rather than a representative teacher. The results of this study can have important implications for policy makers and parents seeking cost-effective and nationwide scalable interventions to improve child development and academic performance during challenging times.