Chronic Stress and Information Acquisition in Low-Income Individuals: A Randomized Field Experiment in Mumbai

Money worries, crowded homes and long working days can leave people with little mental energy to spare. This study asks whether everyday stress makes it harder for parents to pick up information about their young children, and whether easing stress helps. We work with about 800 parents of pre-primary children at low-fee and municipal schools in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Some parents learn a short breathing routine, cued by a beaded bracelet; others receive the same bracelet as a thank-you gift. Every parent receives a deck of daily conversation cards to use with their child: some cards invite answers that are easy to check, such as counting or naming, while others ask open-ended “why” questions. Over about six months, we measure how parents’ views of their child change, their stress, and how they use the cards. A companion study with other caregivers uses a tablet game to see how mental load affects attention. The aim is to understand when stress gets in the way of learning.