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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
The study is a factorial vignette experiment embedded in the endline survey of a cluster-randomised trial evaluating a comprehensive school health program in 225 primary schools in Zambia. The vignette experiment is administered to parents or guardians of learners enrolled in these schools.
Each respondent is presented with one vignette describing a scenario in which a mother reacts to a child's misbehaviour. Vignettes take place "today, in a community similar to yours" and involve a 10-year-old child. The attributes of each vignette are randomly assigned to the respondent from a factorial design:
(a) the child's gender.
(b) the type of misbehaviour ("accidentally knocks over and breaks a clay pot while playing in the yard", " refuses to help with household chores when the mother asks", " lies about having been to school during the day when they were not", " comes home at 21 hours when the mother expected them back by 17 hours", " takes money from the mother's purse without asking", or " beats another child")
(c) the disciplinary response (slaps the child across the face", "whips the child on the legs", "grounds the child and does not allow them to go out and play", or "sits the child down and explains why their behaviour was wrong").
This yields 2 × 6 × 4 = 48 unique vignettes.
For each vignette, respondents report: (A) whether they personally find the adult's behaviour acceptable; (B) how many members of their community (for parents) or fellow teachers (for teachers) — out of five — would find the behaviour acceptable, and how many would react in the same way; (C) how likely they themselves would be to act in the same way; and (D) their beliefs about the likely consequences for the child.
The random assignment of vignette attributes allows experimental identification of how respondents' attitudes, social expectations, self-projected behaviour, and beliefs about consequences vary with the type of offence, the severity and nature of the disciplinary response, and the child's gender. Content and wording of the scenarios were developed on the basis of focus group discussions and key informant interviews with mothers and fathers in Ndola.
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After
The study is a factorial vignette experiment embedded in the endline survey of a cluster-randomised trial evaluating a comprehensive school health program in 225 primary schools in Zambia. The vignette experiment is administered to parents or guardians of learners enrolled in these schools.
Each respondent is presented with one vignette describing a scenario in which a mother reacts to a child's misbehaviour. Vignettes take place "today, in a community similar to yours" and involve a 10-year-old child. The attributes of each vignette are randomly assigned to the respondent from a factorial design:
(a) the child's gender.
(b) the type of misbehaviour ("accidentally knocks over and breaks a clay pot while playing in the yard", " refuses to help with household chores when the mother asks", " lies about having been to school during the day when they were not", " comes home at 21 hours when the mother expected them back by 17 hours", " takes money from the mother's purse without asking", or " beats another child")
(c) the disciplinary response (slaps the child across the face", "whips the child on the legs", "grounds the child and does not allow them to go out and play", or "sits the child down and explains why their behaviour was wrong").
This yields 2 × 6 × 4 = 48 unique vignettes.
For each vignette, respondents report: (A) whether they personally find the adult's behaviour acceptable; (B) how many members of their community — out of five — would find the behaviour acceptable, and how many would react in the same way; (C) how likely they themselves would be to act in the same way; and (D) their beliefs about the likely consequences for the child.
The random assignment of vignette attributes allows experimental identification of how respondents' attitudes, social expectations, self-projected behaviour, and beliefs about consequences vary with the type of offence, the severity and nature of the disciplinary response, and the child's gender. Content and wording of the scenarios were developed on the basis of focus group discussions and key informant interviews with mothers and fathers in Ndola.
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