IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v149y2022ics0305750x21003016.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Passive versus active service delivery: Comparing the effects of two parenting interventions on early cognitive development in rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Sylvia, Sean
  • Luo, Renfu
  • Zhong, Jingdong
  • Dill, Sarah-Eve
  • Medina, Alexis
  • Rozelle, Scott

Abstract

We present the results of a cluster-randomized controlled trial that evaluates the effects of a free, center-based parenting intervention on early cognitive development and parenting practices in 100 rural villages in China. We then compare these effects to a previous trial of a home-based intervention conducted in the same region, using the same parenting curriculum and public service system, accounting for potential differences between the studies. We find that the center-based intervention did not have a significant impact on child development outcomes, but did lead to increases in the material investments, time investments, and parenting skills of caregivers. The average impact of the center-based intervention on child skills and investments in children was significantly smaller than the home-visiting intervention. Analysis of the possible mechanisms suggests that the difference in effects was driven primarily by different patterns of selection into program participation.

Suggested Citation

  • Sylvia, Sean & Luo, Renfu & Zhong, Jingdong & Dill, Sarah-Eve & Medina, Alexis & Rozelle, Scott, 2022. "Passive versus active service delivery: Comparing the effects of two parenting interventions on early cognitive development in rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:149:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x21003016
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105686
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X21003016
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105686?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yoav Benjamini & Abba M. Krieger & Daniel Yekutieli, 2006. "Adaptive linear step-up procedures that control the false discovery rate," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 93(3), pages 491-507, September.
    2. Walker, Susan P. & Powell, Christine & Chang-Lopez, Susan M. & Baker-Henningham, Helen & Grantham-McGregor, Sally & Vera-Hernández, Marcos & Lopez Boo, Florencia, 2015. "Delivering Parenting Interventions through Health Services in the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7305, Inter-American Development Bank.
    3. James J. Heckman & Stefano Mosso, 2014. "The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 689-733, August.
    4. Ai Yue & Yu Bai & Yaojiang Shi & Renfu Luo & Scott Rozelle & Alexis Medina & Sean Sylvia, 2020. "Parental Migration and Early Childhood Development in Rural China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 403-422, April.
    5. Wang, Lei & Liang, Wilson & Zhang, Siqi & Jonsson, Laura & Li, Mengjie & Yu, Cordelia & Sun, Yonglei & Ma, Qingrui & Bai, Yu & Abbey, Cody & Luo, Renfu & Yue, Ai & Rozelle, Scott, 2019. "Are infant/toddler developmental delays a problem across rural China?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 458-469.
    6. James Heckman & Flavio Cunha, 2007. "The Technology of Skill Formation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 31-47, May.
    7. Orazio Attanasio & Sarah Cattan & Emla Fitzsimons & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2020. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(1), pages 48-85, January.
    8. Mark Huggett & Gustavo Ventura & Amir Yaron, 2011. "Sources of Lifetime Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 2923-2954, December.
    9. Jin Zhou & Bei Liu & LU Mai, 2020. "The Impact of a Prototypical Home Visiting Program on Child Skills," Working Papers 2020-047, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    10. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2009. "The Economics and Psychology of Inequality and Human DEvelopment," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 320-364, 04-05.
    11. Özler, Berk & Fernald, Lia C.H. & Kariger, Patricia & McConnell, Christin & Neuman, Michelle & Fraga, Eduardo, 2018. "Combining pre-school teacher training with parenting education: A cluster-randomized controlled trial," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 448-467.
    12. Heckman, James J. & Moon, Seong Hyeok & Pinto, Rodrigo & Savelyev, Peter A. & Yavitz, Adam, 2010. "The rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 114-128, February.
    13. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2008. "Formulating, Identifying and Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
    14. Orazio Attanasio & Helen Baker-Henningham & Raquel Bernal & Costas Meghir & Diana Pineda & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2022. "Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 1395-1432.
    15. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman & Susanne M. Schennach, 2010. "Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(3), pages 883-931, May.
    16. Jeffrey R Kling & Jeffrey B Liebman & Lawrence F Katz, 2007. "Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(1), pages 83-119, January.
    17. Susan P. Walker & Christine Powell & Susan M. Chang & Helen Baker-Henningham & Sally Grantham-McGregor & Marcos Vera-Hernández & Florencia López Bóo, 2015. "Delivering Parenting Interventions through Health Services in the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 91816, Inter-American Development Bank.
    18. Heckman, James J., 2007. "The Economics, Technology and Neuroscience of Human Capability Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 2875, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Anna Aizer & Flávio Cunha, 2012. "The Production of Human Capital: Endowments, Investments and Fertility," NBER Working Papers 18429, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. David S. Lee, 2009. "Training, Wages, and Sample Selection: Estimating Sharp Bounds on Treatment Effects," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(3), pages 1071-1102.
    21. Orazio P. Attanasio & Camila Fernández & Emla O. A. Fitzsimons & Sally M. Grantham-McGregor & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, "undated". "Using the Infrastructure of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program to Deliver a Scalable Integrated Early Child Development Program in Colombia: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 62cf429ea5b74678a945aa87b, Mathematica Policy Research.
    22. Miriam Bruhn & David McKenzie, 2009. "In Pursuit of Balance: Randomization in Practice in Development Field Experiments," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 200-232, October.
    23. Cunha, Flavio & Heckman, James J. & Lochner, Lance, 2006. "Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 12, pages 697-812, Elsevier.
    24. Alison Andrew & Orazio Attanasio & Emla Fitzsimons & Sally Grantham-McGregor & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2018. "Impacts 2 years after a scalable early childhood development intervention to increase psychosocial stimulation in the home: A follow-up of a cluster randomised controlled trial in Colombia," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, April.
    25. Hongbin Li & Prashant Loyalka & Scott Rozelle & Binzhen Wu, 2017. "Human Capital and China's Future Growth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 25-48, Winter.
    26. Kin Bing Wu & Mary Eming Young & Jianhua Cai, 2012. "Early Child Development in China : Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Improving Future Competitiveness," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 9383.
    27. Heckman, James J. & Liu, Bei & Lu, Mai & Zhou, Jin, 2020. "Treatment Effects and the Measurement of Skills in a Prototypical Home Visiting Program," IZA Discussion Papers 13346, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    28. Luo, Renfu & Emmers, Dorien & Warrinnier, Nele & Rozelle, Scott & Sylvia, Sean, 2019. "Using community health workers to deliver a scalable integrated parenting program in rural China: A cluster-randomized controlled trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    29. Zhou, Lei & Jiang, Bo & Wang, Jingxi, 2020. "Do cash transfers have impacts on student Academic, cognitive, and enrollment outcomes? Evidence from rural China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    30. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2009. "The Economics & Psychology of Inequality and Human Development," Working Papers 200905, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wu, Wenjie & Zhe, Yang & Kim, Jun Hyung & Yue, Ai, 2023. "Effects of Early Childhood Climate on Cognitive Development and Home Environment," IZA Discussion Papers 16017, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Leighton, Margaret & Martine, Anitha & Massaga, Julius, 2023. "Fostering early childhood development in low-resource communities: Evidence from a group-based parenting intervention in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    3. Wang, Lei & Song, Chuyu & Xian, Yue & Sylvia, Sean & Rozelle, Scott, 2024. "Willingness-to-pay for early childhood development: A field experiment in Western China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Lei Wang & Siqi Zhang & Scott Rozelle, 2024. "Do the pathways of child development before age three matter for development at primary school? Evidence from rural China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Bai, Yu & Emmers, Dorien & Li, Ying & Tang, Lei, 2022. "Parental locus of control and early childhood development: Evidence on parent and grandparent caregivers in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    6. Kang Du & Huan Wang & Yue Ma & Hongyu Guan & Scott Rozelle, 2022. "Effect of Eyeglasses on Student Academic Performance: What Matters? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-18, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhong, Jingdong & Kuhn, Lena & Wang, Tianyi & Liu, Chengfang & Luo, Renfu, 2020. "The interrelationships between parental migration, home environment, and early child development in rural China: A cross-sectional study," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(11).
    2. Akgündüz, Yusuf Emre & Akyol, Pelin & Aydemir, Abdurrahman B. & Demirci, Murat & Kirdar, Murat Güray, 2024. "Intergenerational Effects of Compulsory Schooling Reform on Early Childhood Development in a Middle-Income Country," IZA Discussion Papers 17249, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Zhong, Jingdong & Gao, Jingjing & Wang, Tianyi & He, Yang & Liu, Chengfang & Luo, Renfu, 2020. "Interrelationships of parental belief, parental investments, and child development: A cross-sectional study in rural China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    4. Xiong, Xianfang & Deng, Lanfang & Li, Hongyi, 2020. "Is winning at the start important: Early childhood family cognitive stimulation and child development," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    5. Jorge Luis García & James J. Heckman, 2023. "Parenting Promotes Social Mobility Within and Across Generations," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 15(1), pages 349-388, September.
    6. Kautz, Tim & Heckman, James J. & Diris, Ron & ter Weel, Bas & Borghans, Lex, 2014. "Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success," IZA Discussion Papers 8696, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. James J. Heckman & Chase O. Corbin, 2016. "Capabilities and Skills," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 342-359, July.
    8. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman & Susanne M. Schennach, 2010. "Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(3), pages 883-931, May.
    9. Francesconi, Marco & Heckman, James J, 2015. "Symposium on Child Development and Parental Investment: Introduction," Economics Discussion Papers 16868, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    10. Uta Bolt & Eric French & Jamie Hentall Maccuish & Cormac O’Dea, 2018. "Intergenerational Altruism and Transfers of Time and Money: A Life-cycle Perspective," Working Papers wp379, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    11. Wang, Lei & Jiang, Dingjing & Zhang, Siqi & Rozelle, Scott, 2024. "Caregivers’ parenting beliefs, practices, and child developmental outcomes: Evidence from randomized controlled trials in rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    12. James J. Heckman & Stefano Mosso, 2014. "The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 689-733, August.
    13. Yusuf Emre Akgunduz & Pelin Akyol & Abdurrahman B. Aydemir & Murat Demirci & Murat G. Kirdar, 2023. "Maternal Education and Early Child Development: The Roles of Parental Support for Learning, Learning Materials, and Father Characteristics," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 2305, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    14. Heckman, James J. & Raut, Lakshmi K., 2016. "Intergenerational long-term effects of preschool-structural estimates from a discrete dynamic programming model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 191(1), pages 164-175.
    15. James J. Heckman, 2012. "The developmental origins of health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(1), pages 24-29, January.
    16. Orazio Attanasio & Sarah Cattan & Emla Fitzsimons & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2020. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(1), pages 48-85, January.
    17. Holla,Alaka & Bendini,Maria Magdalena & Dinarte Diaz,Lelys Ileana & Trako,Iva, 2021. "Is Investment in Preprimary Education Too Low ? Lessons from (Quasi) ExperimentalEvidence across Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9723, The World Bank.
    18. Attanasio, Orazio & Cattan, Sarah & Fitzsimons, Emla & Meghir, Costas & Rubio-Codina, Marta, 2015. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Control Trial in Colombia," IZA Discussion Papers 8856, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Flèche, Sarah & Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Clark, Andrew E., 2021. "The long-lasting effects of family and childhood on adult wellbeing: Evidence from British cohort data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 290-311.
    20. Ao, Xiang & Chen, Xuan & Zhao, Zhong, 2022. "Is care by grandparents or parents better for children's non-cognitive skills? Evidence on locus of control from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:149:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x21003016. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.