Texting Parents about Early Child Development : Behavioral Changes and Unintended Social Effects
Parenting interventions have the potential to improve early childhood development. Text messages are considered a promising channel to deliver parenting information at large scale. This paper tests whether sending text messages about parenting prac...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/605381607538581261/Texting-Parents-about-Early-Child-Development-Behavioral-Changes-and-Unintended-Social-Effects http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34914 |
| Summary: | Parenting interventions have the
potential to improve early childhood development. Text
messages are considered a promising channel to deliver
parenting information at large scale. This paper tests
whether sending text messages about parenting practices
impacts early childhood development. Households in rural
Nicaragua were randomly assigned to receive messages about
nutrition, health, stimulation, or the home environment. The
intervention led to significant changes in self-reported
parenting practices. However, it did not translate into
improvements in children's cognitive development. When
local opinion leaders were randomly exposed to the same text
message intervention, parental investments declined and
children's outcomes deteriorated. Since interactions
between parents and leaders about child development also
decreased, the negative effects may have resulted from a
crowding-out of some local leaders. |
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