Creciendo Juntos: A Preparing for Life program

The Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Chicago has established Creciendo Juntos (Growing Together): A Preparing for Life program, a collaborative initiative with Preparing for Life (PFL), an evidence-based home visiting model from Ireland, Casa Central, a Chicago-based social service organization, and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) a leading social science research center, to support economically vulnerable Latino families.

Creciendo Juntos is a home-visiting program designed to support Latino families on Chicago’s South Side during the critical early years of a child’s development. Based on the internationally recognized Preparing for Life model from Ireland, the program begins during pregnancy and continues until the child starts school. Creciendo Juntos is a dosage experiment whereby all participants (randomized into “low” and “high” treatment groups) receive some level of treatment. Families in both groups receive developmental toy and book packs, professional photographs of target child, access to support worker to assist in non-parenting related issues, and invitations to social events. Families in the “high” treatment group also receive intensive parenting supports including a home visiting program from pregnancy until school entry, baby massage in the first year, and group-based parenting sessions in the third year. PFL’s theory of change is based on the principles that providing knowledge and active guidance on appropriate parenting techniques, helping parents to identify and promote children’s developmental milestones, and encouraging parents to provide greater stimulation to their child, will result in improved outcomes. The program is grounded in several psychological theories of development including the theory of human attachment, socio-ecological theory of development, and social-learning theory.

Evidence from the first RCT of PFL demonstrated that the program was effective in boosting IQ, reducing the incidence of behavioral problems, and reducing hospital use (Doyle 2020, 2024). These results differ from evaluations of other HVPs in the US by demonstrating sustained effects into adolescence (Doyle 2025). Creciendo Juntos represents a meaningful extension and culturally sensitive adaptation of PFL to determine 1) whether similar program effects can be achieved in a different setting with a different population and 2) to identify the core elements of program effectiveness.

This trial will recruit families from 3 Chicago zip codes of 60609, 60629, and 60632 which have a high proportion of Latino families (over 70%), many being recent immigrants. The median household per capita income in this area is ~50% lower than the city-wide median and over 24% of children live below the poverty line (Illinois Action For Children 2024). Thus, the study will target economically vulnerable families from a marginalized community whose children may be particularly at risk of poor academic achievement (Kuhfeld et al. 2018). In addition, many enrolled families speak Spanish in the home, thus they may face additional barriers in transitioning to school. The PFL program, with a strong emphasis on school readiness, may be particularly beneficial.

2025-06-18

2032-12-31

Cognitive development, language development, socio-emotional development, behavioral regulation, physical health

In addition to end-point impacts, the study includes planned follow-ups as children enter later stages of development. Longer-term outcomes include sustained effects on cognitive development, physical health, socio-emotional functioning, school attendance and academic performance. In the long run, the study aims to track key life cycle outcomes such as educational attainment, labor market attachment, long-term health, and intergenerational mobility.

Secondary outcomes, as well as potential mediators/mechanisms, include parenting skills and quality of the home environment (measured using recordings of home visits and parent-child interactions and wearable devices); and parent health and well-being.

The research team also plans to use administrative data where possible. Health records can provide data for birth outcomes and other health related topics. Information provided by daycares, public social services and other sources can provide insights on many of the proposed secondary outcomes.

Creciendo Juntos' enrollment occurs during pregnancy, prior to the child’s birth. In-person recruitment and baseline data collection are conducted by members of the Creciendo Juntos Research Team at Casa Central. During the initial 30-minute baseline survey, participants complete an informed consent process, after which they are randomly assigned—via survey programming using an unconditional probability algorithm—to either a high-treatment or low-treatment group. The high-treatment group receives structured home visits, baby massage classes, and group-based parenting activities; both groups receive developmentally appropriate materials, community resource referrals, and invitations to program events. Following enrollment, all evaluation data collection will be conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, whose field interviewers are blinded to treatment status. Evaluation waves include short pulse surveys and follow-ups at 12, 18, 24, 36 and 48 months, as well as a structured home observation at 12 months. Administrative data will also be collected where possible. Surveys will be conducted at a location of the participant’s choice, typically in the home. All evaluation data will be securely stored by NORC, fully de-identified, and not shared with program staff. Findings will assess short- and long-term impacts on child development and family outcomes.

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Randomization will be conducted in the participant’s home or another location directly following administration of the baseline survey. An unconditional probability computerized randomisation procedure will be used. The baseline survey, administered via interviewer interfacing with a tablet, will conclude with a link that the participant will click to trigger the randomization. The participant will be notified of the group they were randomized into and be able to ask any questions they may have of the interviewer at this time. Once assignment is completed, an automatic email will be generated which includes the participant’s unique ID number and assignment condition. This email will be automatically sent to the research team and the implementation team. This method will be used to ensure that the recruiter has no influence on the treatment assignment. Thus if any attempts to reassign participants from one group to another group, by either directly changing the database or repeating the randomization procedure, a second email will be generated to automatically highlight this intentional subversion.

Randomization will take place at the individal level.

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250 famililes

125 families in the high treatment group and 125 families in the low treatment group.

Power analyses were conducted for 3 outcomes - cognition, socio-emotional skills, and health. For cognition, a minimum detectable effect size of 0.77SDs was used (which was the ITT effect size realized in the original trial using the British Ability Scales, Doyle 2020). In order to achieve 90% statistical power at the 0.05 significance level in a two-tailed test, a sample size of approximately 72 families (37 in each group) is required. Additional power analyses based on endline effect sizes of 0.43SD for socio-emotional outcomes (externalizing problems, Doyle 2020) and 0.53SD for health outcomes (number of hospital attendances, Coy & Doyle 2024) yields required sample sizes of 228 and152 participants respectively. As attrition is a known challenge in longitudinal research (attrition in the original trial was 36% at age 5) we plan to over-sample to maintain sufficient power. Thus, a final sample size of 250 families will be recruited.