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Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention

Author

Listed:
  • Orazio P. Attanasio

    (University College in London)

  • Helen Baker-Henningham

    (Bangor University)

  • Raquel Bernal

    (Universidad de los Andes)

  • Costas Meghir

    (Cowles Foundation, Yale University)

  • Diana Pineda

    (Fundaci'n 'xito)

  • Marta Rubio-Codina

    (Inter-American Development Bank)

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effects of the implementation of a structured early stimulation curriculum combined with a nutritional intervention through public large-scale parenting support services for vulnerable families in rural Colombia, known as FAMI, using a clustered randomized controlled trial. We randomly assigned 87 towns in rural areas to treatment and control and 1,460 children younger than 1 year of age were assessed at baseline. The interventions were also complemented with training, supervision and coaching of FAMI program facilitators. We assessed program effects on children's nutritional status, and on cognitive and socio-emotional development; as well as on parental practices. The interventions had a positive and significant effect on a cognitive development factor based on the Bayley-III of 0.15 standard deviations. We also report a reduction of 5.8 percentage points in the fraction of children whose height-for-age is below -1 standard deviation. We do not find any effects on socio-emotional development. We report positive and statistically significant effects on the quality of the home environment (0.34 SD).

Suggested Citation

  • Orazio P. Attanasio & Helen Baker-Henningham & Raquel Bernal & Costas Meghir & Diana Pineda & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2018. "Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2145, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2145
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    Cited by:

    1. Raquel Bernal & Michele Giannola & Milagros Nores, 2023. "The Effect of Center-Based Early Education on Disadvantaged Children’s Developmental Trajectories: Experimental Evidence from Colombia," CSEF Working Papers 665, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy, revised 01 Feb 2024.
    2. Alison Andrew & Orazio Attanasio & Raquel Bernal & Lina Cardona Sosa & Sonya Krutikova & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2019. "Preschool Quality and Child Development," NBER Working Papers 26191, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Premand, Patrick & Barry, Oumar, 2022. "Behavioral change promotion, cash transfers and early childhood development: Experimental evidence from a government program in a low-income setting," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    4. Attanasio, Orazio & de Barros, Ricardo Paes & Carneiro, Pedro & Evans, David K. & Lima, Lycia & Olinto, Pedro & Schady, Norbert, 2022. "Public Childcare, Labor Market Outcomes of Caregivers, and Child Development: Experimental Evidence from Brazil," IZA Discussion Papers 15705, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Bernal, Raquel & Ramírez, Sara María, 2019. "Improving the quality of early childhood care at scale: The effects of “From Zero to Forever”," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 91-105.
    6. Davide Azzolini & Martina Bazzoli & Sergiu C. Burlacu & Enrico Rettore, 2023. "Starting the school year on the right foot. Effects of a summer learning program targeting vulnerable students in Italy," FBK-IRVAPP Working Papers 2023-05, Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (IRVAPP), Bruno Kessler Foundation.
    7. Magdalena Bendini & Lelys Dinarte, 2020. "Does Maternal Depression Undermine Childhood Cognitive Development? Evidence from the Young Lives Survey in Peru," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-18, October.
    8. Wisuwat Chujan & Weerachart T. Kilenthong, 2019. "Short-term Impact of an Early Childhood Curriculum Intervention in Rural Thailand," Working Papers 2019-077, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    9. Juanita Bloomfield & Ana Balsa & Alejandro Cid, 2023. "Using behavioral insights in early childhood interventions: the effects of Crianza Positiva e-messaging program on parental investment," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 95-130, March.
    10. Raquel Bernal & Sara María Ramírez, 2018. "Improving childcare quality at scale: the effects of “From Zero to Forever”," Documentos CEDE 16600, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    11. Nores, Milagros & Bernal, Raquel & Barnett, W. Steven, 2019. "Center-based care for infants and toddlers: The aeioTU randomized trial," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 30-43.
    12. 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).
    13. Wisuwat Chujan & Weerachart Kilenthong, 2019. "An Early Evaluation of a HighScope-Based Curriculum Intervention in Rural Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 103, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    14. Raquel Bernal & Michele Giannola & Milagros Nores, 2022. "The Effect of Center-Based Early Education on Disadvantaged Children's Developmental Trajectories: Experimental Evidence from Colombia," Working Papers 2022-027, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    15. Conner Mullally & Mayra Rivas & Travis McArthur, 2021. "Using Machine Learning to Estimate the Heterogeneous Effects of Livestock Transfers," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(3), pages 1058-1081, May.
    16. Yiwei Qian & Yi Ming Zheng & Sarah-Eve Dill & Scott Rozelle, 2020. "Correlates of participation in community-based interventions: Evidence from a parenting program in rural China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, September.
    17. Justine Herve & Helene Purcell & Subha Mani, 2023. "Conscientiousness Matters: How does Personality affect Labor Market Outcomes?," Fordham Economics Discussion Paper Series dp2023-05er:dp2023-05, Fordham University, Department of Economics.
    18. Chandra, Anjali & Mani, Subha & Dolphin, Heather & Dyson, Meredith & Marah, Yembeh, 2021. "Experimental Evidence from an Integrated Early Childhood Parenting Program in Sierra Leone," IZA Discussion Papers 14054, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Carneiro, Pedro & Galasso, Emanuela & Lopez Garcia, Italo & Bedregal, Paula & Cordero, Miguel, 2019. "Parental Beliefs, Investments, and Child Development: Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 12506, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Lenel, Friederike & Priebe, Jan & Satriawan, Elan & Syamsulhakim, Ekki, 2022. "Can mHealth campaigns improve CCT outcomes? Experimental evidence from sms-nudges in Indonesia," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    21. Bansak, Cynthia & Jiang, Xuan & Yang, Guanyi, 2022. "Sibling spillovers in rural China: A story of sisters," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    22. McWay, Ryan & Prabhakar, Pallavi & Ellis, Ayo, 2022. "The Impact of Early Childhood Development Interventions on Children’s Health in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 14/2022, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    23. Mullally, Conner & Rivas, Mayra & McArthur, Travis, 2019. "Livestock Transfers Can Improve Child Health: Evidence from a Randomized Phase-In Design in Guatemala," SocArXiv c6zg5, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Early childhood development; Parenting; Early stimulation; Program scale-up;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate

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