Developing a Remote-Scalable Measure of Early Child Development

Last registered on November 15, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Developing a Remote-Scalable Measure of Early Child Development
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014554
Initial registration date
November 04, 2024

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
November 15, 2024, 1:26 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
India
Region
Uttar Pradesh

Primary Investigator

Name
Aarti Malik
Affiliation
Princeton University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Ronak Jain
PI Affiliation
University of Zurich
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PI Name
James Walsh
PI Affiliation
The Agency Fund
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2024-10-01
End date
2025-01-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education
Additional Keywords
Early Childhood Development, Remote Assessment, Framing Effects, Reporting Bias
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We are working on measuring early childhood development (ECD) of 4-6-year-olds in India. We aim to develop a scalable, remote measure of early childhood outcomes using phone surveys with parents and teachers. As misreporting of children's achievements by parents might be a concern when collecting these assessments remotely, we experimentally vary the framing of the assessment and evaluate the accuracy of parental reports in each case.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Jain, Ronak, Aarti Malik and James Walsh. 2024. "Developing a Remote-Scalable Measure of Early Child Development." AEA RCT Registry. November 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14554-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Parental assessments of their child's capabilities might be biased because parents could overstate their children’s achievements, which might be of concern especially when trying to design a remote assessment for children. To assess this, we will randomly assign parents to one of the following groups, each receiving different motivational framings (varying the perceived benefits and costs of exaggerating) their children’s achievements in the survey:
(1) Encouraging exaggeration: Encouraging parents to report their children’s achievements favorably or help their kids.
(2) Neutral: Providing a neutral context without encouraging any particular bias.
(3) Discouraging exaggeration: Inducing a more critical or less favorable reporting and discouraging them from helping.
(4) Neutral + Independent Report/Cross-validation with teacher survey: Informing that parent’s reports will be triangulated with teacher-reported scores.
Intervention Start Date
2024-10-01
Intervention End Date
2024-11-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Early Childhood Development (ECD): Scores in Numeracy, Literacy, Reading Comprehension, Executive Functioning.
We will also assess discrepancies between parental reports and independently conducted in-person child assessment across different treatment arms.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Age of the child in months, Gender of the child, Type of school attended, Months attended Anganwadi Center (AWC), Total adults in the household, Mother is present in the household, Father is present in the household, Grandmother is present in the household, Frequency of the child being sick, Child gets tired easily, Child's expected level of education, Number of books at home, Someone reads to the child, Car ownership in the household, Social desirability scale.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
We will also conduct heterogeneity analysis along these dimensions.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will randomly assign parents (equally) to receive different framings before they report on their child's assessments (collected via a phone survey):
(1) Encouraging exaggeration: Encouraging parents to report their children’s achievements favorably or help their kids.
(2) Neutral: Providing a neutral context without encouraging any particular bias.
(3) Discouraging exaggeration: Inducing a more critical or less favorable reporting and discouraging them from helping.
(4) Neutral + Independent Report/Cross-validation with teacher survey: Informing that parent’s reports will be triangulated with teacher-reported scores.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is done by SurveyCTO, a survey software.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
1200 parents
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
300 parents in treatment 1, 300 parents in treatment 2, 300 parents in control, 300 parents in treatment 3
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Sigma-IRB
IRB Approval Date
2024-09-16
IRB Approval Number
10030/IRB/24-25
Analysis Plan