Supporting Children’s Talents

Last registered on September 08, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Supporting Children’s Talents
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016634
Initial registration date
August 29, 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
September 08, 2025, 6:20 AM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Kai Barron
Affiliation
WZB
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Anne Brenøe
PI Affiliation
University of Zurich
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-09-01
End date
2028-07-15
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Gender
Additional Keywords
Parents, Children
JEL code(s)
I21
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study investigates how parents and children make decisions during the transition to lower secondary school in Switzerland. We focus in particular on how children allocate time and effort between mathematics and German.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Barron, Kai and Anne Brenøe. 2025. "Supporting Children’s Talents." AEA RCT Registry. September 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16634-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The study employs a 2×2 experimental design. We examine how each of the interventions influence parent and child beliefs and decision-making regarding skill formation and the transition to lower secondary school in Switzerland. The details of the interventions are provided in the attached pdf.
Intervention Start Date
2025-09-01
Intervention End Date
2027-07-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Parents:
Parental GIC importance: Relative importance of the child developing skills and performing well in GIC versus GC subjects.
Parent GIC aspirations: Kinder-UZH lottery choice

Children:
Child’s perceived parental GIC importance: Perception of parents’ relative importance of doing well in GIC and GC
Child’s own GIC interests: Magic button to be good at GIC subject vs GC subject or none
Gymi aspirations
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Parent survey
• Parental GIC importance: Time investment in GIC and GC subjects
• Parent GIC aspirations: Vision of child’s profession as an adult

Child survey
• Child perceived parental GIC importance: Perceived relative parental encouragement / support for GIC vs GC subjects.
• Child’s own GIC interests:
- Gendered answers to “Anything they can be really good at” question.
- Gendered answers to “Adult job” question
- Book choice (gendered)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We describe the details of our experimental design in the attached pdf.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done within the Qualtrics survey.
Randomization Unit
We will randomize at the level of the individual. For the parent dimension, at the individual parent level; for the child dimension at the individual child level. The attached pdf contains further details and describes how we will stratify and also that we limit the randomization on the child dimension to children above grade 3.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
900 complete parent-child pairs.
Sample size: planned number of observations
900 complete parent-child pairs.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
On the parent dimension, we plan to randomize half of parents into each of the two parent conditions (treatment and control).

On the child dimension, for children in grades 4,5 and 6, we plan to randomize half into each of the two child treatment conditions (private and collaborative).

Please see the attached pdf for further details - in particular, how we treat children in grade 3.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We target recruitment of 900 matched parent-child observations. Half of the sample (450) is assigned to treatment and the other half to control videos. With 80 percent power and 5 percent statistical significance, the minimum detectable effect of the treatment video is 0.187 SD in a simple t-test.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Human Subjects Committee of the Faculty of Economics, Business Administration, and Information Technology, University of Zurich
IRB Approval Date
2025-08-27
IRB Approval Number
OEC IRB # 2025-071.1 - Amendment
Analysis Plan

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