Investing in Children: Beliefs, Social Norms, and Parent–Child Reading. A Randomized Controlled Trial on Bookgifting in Jordan

Last registered on March 10, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Investing in Children: Beliefs, Social Norms, and Parent–Child Reading. A Randomized Controlled Trial on Bookgifting in Jordan
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017985
Initial registration date
March 09, 2026

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
March 10, 2026, 10:37 AM EDT

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

Locations

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

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Matteo Santangelo Ravà
Affiliation
Aix Marseille School of Economics
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Emma Paladino
PI Affiliation
Aix Marseille School of Economics
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2025-12-01
End date
2026-08-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
I24, I25, I26, D10
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Low levels of early childhood literacy remain a major constraint to human capital accumulation in low- and middle-income countries. While parental engagement in early learning activities—such as reading to young children—is known to be crucial, take-up of these practices is often limited by constraints beyond material resources, including parental beliefs, social norms, and intra-household decision-making. This paper studies a large-scale clustered randomized controlled trial implemented in Jordan that aims to increase parent–child reading among households with children aged 1 to 18 months. The intervention combines a book-gifting program delivered through public health facilities with informational components targeting parents’ beliefs about the returns to early reading and prevailing social norms. A key experimental feature is a treatment arm that explicitly includes fathers, allowing us to examine the role of paternal beliefs and couples’ bargaining in shaping early childhood investments. Using survey data on approximately 2,200 households, we analyze short- and medium-term impacts on reading behavior, parental beliefs, perceived social norms, and household decision-making, as well as child language development outcomes. The study contributes to the literature on early childhood interventions by highlighting the importance of belief formation, social norms, and fathers’ involvement in enhancing the effectiveness of resource-based policies in low-reading contexts.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Paladino, Emma and Matteo Santangelo Ravà. 2026. "Investing in Children: Beliefs, Social Norms, and Parent–Child Reading. A Randomized Controlled Trial on Bookgifting in Jordan ." AEA RCT Registry. March 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17985-1.0
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)
The study evaluates a randomized intervention designed to increase parental engagement in early shared reading with young children. The intervention is delivered through public healthcare centers during routine child vaccination visits in Jordan.

Treated households receive age-appropriate children’s books following the national vaccination schedule, together with brief informational messages on the importance of reading to children from birth. In one treatment arm, informational content is directed to the child’s primary caregiver. In a second treatment arm, informational messages are also provided to fathers, with the aim of encouraging paternal involvement and support for shared reading activities. Control households receive no intervention beyond standard healthcare services.
Intervention Start Date
2025-12-01
Intervention End Date
2026-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcomes of interest are: Parent–child shared reading behavior, measured by self-reported frequency and intensity of reading activities with the child. Parental beliefs about the returns to early reading, including beliefs about child language development and school readiness. Perceived social norms related to early reading, including perceptions of what parents should do and what other parents typically do. Willingness to pay for books, measured at the endline.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to pay for books
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study is a clustered randomized controlled trial with randomization at the healthcare-center level. Healthcare centers are randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, standard treatment, or enhanced treatment including fathers. Outcomes are measured using survey data collected at baseline, midline, and endline. The primary analysis compares outcomes across treatment arms using an intention-to-treat framework.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization was performed using Stata coding at the center and a random number in the survey software for baseline data collection.
Randomization Unit
Randomization occurs first at the health centre level, then at the caregiver level for treatment 1 or 2.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Sample size is 22 health centers
Sample size: planned number of observations
1500 for the endline, and around 1800 for baseline
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
11 health center treatment and 11 health center control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Proportional outcomes, considering a sample of 1200, divided across 4 groups of 300, provide valid power for this type of policy experiment. Specifically considering an initial reading level reported at 15% we are powered at 80% to detect a 9% increase or decrease in reading level, and 11% if the baseline value is revealed to be as high as 30%. Proportional outcomes considering a sample of 1200, divided across 4 groups of 300, provide valid power for this type of policy experiment. Specifically considering an initial reading level reported at 15% we are powered at 80% to detect a 9% increase or decrease in reading level, and 11% if the baseline value is revealed to be as high as 30%.  When it comes to the difference between treatment arms, we are considering a higher level of reading for the standard treatment group of 50%. This is the worst-case scenario, given the binary outcome power property, and with a power of 80% we are still able to detect a 12% difference with an additional treatment group. For the father intervention, we do not necessarily expect the actual reading to exceed that much the standard intervention, but we do expect other indicators on social norm and attitude towards reading to increase significantly, and this would be enough, to see an effect on father’s outcome. 
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
(PSUT-IRBRESEARCH-P2)
IRB Approval Date
2025-10-25
IRB Approval Number
2025-0041
Analysis Plan