Decision-maker Survey Hypothetical Information Experiment

Participants will be put into one of a few groups that will be given information about different academic studies about parents and how they interact with schools, and then participants will asked questions about how they react to the information.

Participants will be put into one of a few groups that will be given information about different academic studies about parents and how they interact with schools, and then participants will asked questions about how they react to the information. We want to see if they react differentially to generic information about schools and parents versus information from our team's paper which finds that sending emails from the father and indicating who has more/less availability in the household can change which parent is contacted by the school.

2025-01-03

2026-01-31

Primary Outcome: Proportion of people who state they will Increase somewhat / Increase a lot based on the information presented in each of the treatment arms. We also plan to break this out by gender of the participant. We plan to pool C1/C2 and T1/T2 for the main analysis.

Participants will be put into one of four groups that will be given information about different academic studies about parents and how they interact with schools, and then participants will asked questions about how they react to the information.

Participants are randomized into one of the following 4 treatment arms:

For the next questions we want to understand how you react to information. Imagine you were told the following:

(Control 1) A recent study finds that when parents become more involved in their children's school lives by receiving regular information about their child’s academic progress, their children develop more positive behavior in school. The messages that were used to communicate with the school were sent through a low-cost electronic

(Control 2) A recent study finds that when parents become more involved in their children's school lives by receiving regular information about their child’s academic progress, their children develop more positive behavior in school.

(Treatment 1) A recent study finds that when parents become more involved in their children's school lives by receiving regular information about their child’s academic progress, their children develop more positive behavior in school. Another recent study finds that if the child’s father emails the school and indicates that he has a lot of availability, about 90% of responses from the school will be directed to the father.

(Treatment 2) A recent study finds that when parents become more involved in their children's school lives by receiving regular information about their child’s academic progress, their children develop more positive behavior in school. Another recent study finds that if the child’s father emails the school and indicates that the mother has limited availability, about 90% of responses from the school will be directed to the father.

All are then asked:
How does this information change the likelihood that your household will decide to have the father contact organizations/school?
Decrease a lot / Decrease somewhat / No change / Increase somewhat / Increase a lot

And if they answer "No change", then they are asked:
You indicated that this information does not change the likelihood that your household will decide to have the father contact organizations/school. Please select the option which best describes why you selected "No change"
- Our household chooses to have the father handle all requests from all organizations
- Our household chooses to have the father handle all requests from some organizations (including schools) while the mother handles requests from other organizations.
- Our household chooses to have the mother handle all requests from all organizations.
- Our household chooses to have the mother handle all requests from some organizations (including schools) while the father handles requests from other organizations.
- Other (Please explain):

If they answer anything other than "No Change" then they are asked:
When you selected how this information might change the likelihood that your household will decide to have the father contact organizations/school, can you tell us the reason(s) for your choice?

We also ask questions about previous knowledge of these academic papers' findings.

Randomization by computer via Qualtrics random number generator

individual

No

200 individuals

200 individuals

C1 = 80, T1 = 80, C2 = 20, T2 = 20. We plan to pool C1/C2 and T1/T2 for the main analysis.

We expect the proportion who answer they will change their behavior for the control to be 50% and those who are given a treatment message to be around 70%. Power calculations state we should be able to detect these differences with alpha = 0.05, beta =.20 and power =.80 with 93 participants (C1/C2) in control and 93 participants in treatment (T1/T2)