Parenting Styles and Their Determinants: A Survey and RCT Study

Last registered on December 02, 2025
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Parenting Styles and Their Determinants: A Survey and RCT Study
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016458
Initial registration date
August 06, 2025

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
August 08, 2025, 7:19 AM EDT

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

Last updated
December 02, 2025, 5:49 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Ester Faia
Affiliation
Goethe University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Matthias Doepke
PI Affiliation
London School of Economics
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Fabrizio Zilibotti
PI Affiliation
Yale University
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Giuseppe Sorrenti
PI Affiliation
University of Lausanne
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Francesco Agostinelli
PI Affiliation
University of Pennsylvania
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-12-04
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Labor
Additional Keywords
Parenting styles, Peer effects, Amenities, Neighbourhood choice, Labor market prospects, Exposure to learning, Social media.
JEL code(s)
H4, H7, I24, I26, J62, R23
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This project represents a data collection, through both a survey and an RCT with vignettes, on parenting styles in the United States and how conditions about the neighbourhood or about access to social media affect them. The survey experiment is conducted all at once on 4816 respondents located in the US and it is made of two parts.

The first part is descriptive and aims to capture and characterize parenting choices across a broad set of dimensions. Drawing on established classifications of parenting styles (e.g., Baumrind, 1967)—a framework now widely used in economics (see Doepke and Zilibotti, 2017; Doepke, Sorrenti, and Zilibotti, 2019)—we collect detailed information on how parents approach decisions related to residential choices, educational investments, interference with their children's use of social media, how they promote and support their children’s school effort, whether and how they intervene in their children's peer group formation, and broader child-rearing practices and household dynamics. These choices are solicited alongside key characteristics such as household income, parental education, current and past residential location, and other relevant socio-demographic factors. This section seeks to document new insights into how parenting varies across different segments of the population.

The second part assigns through an RCT a set of six vignettes or hypothetical situations: 3 on neighbourhoods characteristics, 3 on social media and one placebo. The treatments on neighbourhood represents hypothetical changes, which relate to specific characteristics such as safety or school quality. The treatments on social media depict hypothetical situations with expanded or restricted access to social media. In all cases the respondents are presented with a trade-off between the benefits and risk of social interactions (either in person or virtual). Prior to the treatments we present a set of questions about parenting choices, we then measure how they update this behaviour after being treated with the hypothetical situation.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Agostinelli, Francesco et al. 2025. "Parenting Styles and Their Determinants: A Survey and RCT Study." AEA RCT Registry. December 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16458-2.0
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We plan to implement a new survey data collection that combines detailed questions on parenting styles with a randomized experimental component. The general survey section will gather rich information on how parents make decisions related to residential choices, educational investments, peer group formation, and broader household dynamics. The experimental component introduces randomized hypothetical scenarios: 3 of them are on changes in characteristics of the neighbourhood (improved or worst safety, change in school quality), 3 on social media (restrictions or extension) and one placebo. Respondents first answer a set of parenting-related questions, then receive one of these treatments or a control condition unrelated to parenting and are asked the same questions again. This design enables within-subject comparisons and allows us to identify how parenting behaviors and styles respond to perceived environmental changes.

We will use the new data generated by this survey in two complementary ways: (i) to conduct reduced-form analyses that exploit the random assignment of treatments to identify how parenting styles and behaviors shift in response to different "shocks"; and (ii) to estimate structural models of family decision-making and human capital formation. This will allow us to assess the underlying preferences and trade-offs parents face and to infer broader implications for intergenerational mobility, the transmission of preferences, social inclusion, and the development of individual human capital.
Intervention Start Date
2025-12-04
Intervention End Date
2025-12-25

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The outcomes correspond to survey questions related to:

- parental interference in child/s choice of friends
- parental monitoring of online activities
- parental use of strict screen time usage rules
- parental concerns on child’s mental health
- parental adjustment of time and resources to support child activities and development
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This study explores how parents make decisions related to their children’s upbringing and how those interact with characteristics of the neighborhood or the involvement with social media. Respondents are randomly assigned to hypothetical scenarios involving either budget neutral changes in the characteristics of the neighborhood or in the access to social media. A control group is exposed to information unrelated to parenting decisions.

We will estimate treatment effects under a controlled setting with randomized assignment. We will also estimate treatment effects weighted by the salience (measured effective exposure) of each respondent to the randomly assigned treatment. We will examine whether these treatments affect respondents’ stated intentions regarding parenting behaviors.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
The survey will be run online by Qualtrics.
Randomization Unit
Household or family representative.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Total number of units is 4816 households.
Sample size: planned number of observations
4816 respondents
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
The six treatments and the placebo are equally assigned among the 4816 respondents
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
To be computed.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Goethe University Frankfurt
IRB Approval Date
2025-08-22
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan