Insights on Family Engagement From Three Text-Based Early Learning Interventions Among Parents of Low-Income Children

• In Event: 3-248 - Text Me: Promoting Family Engagement and Child Outcomes Through Texting

Integrative Statement

The use of SMS is a popular format for reaching parents to convey information, child development education, and encourage certain parenting behaviors. SMS interventions informed by behavioral economics–an interdisciplinary field blending cognitive science, social psychology, and economics–have been shown to increase savings rates, exercise levels and smoking cessation (Cadena & Schoar, 2011; Rodgers et al., 2005). Early reading SMS interventions such as Ready4k! show promising impacts on children’s development, and dozens of cities host SMS early literacy programs (York, Loeb & Doss, 2015). Despite emerging evidence on young children’s outcomes, the effectiveness of SMS to boost parent engagement is understudied. In this presentation, we discuss findings from three randomized-control studies using SMS as a medium to convey and reinforce early learning and parenting content coupled with behavioral economic motivated insights: novelty, default enrollment, and reminders and commitment devices that have all impacted behavior in other domains.

Parent engagement with early childhood programs fosters their children’s academic school readiness. Poverty related factors–including erratic employment and income instability, absence of paid parental leave, unreliable child care and transportation, unstable housing and social stressors– can place cognitive and emotional demands on parents’ cognitive resources and direct their attention away from early-childhood resources beneficial to their children’s development. A behavioral economics (BE) perspective offers insights on strategies to redirect parents’ attention toward the early learning materials while considering their busy and often unstable schedules.

Three studies were designed to explore the extent to which parents engage with early interventions via SMS. The first study (n=411), a partnership with a NYC newborn home visiting program, applied BE enhancements via SMS to support early language habits among low-income mothers. This study auto-enrolled a random subset of parents (treatment group; n=217) into the SMS-based intervention and a control group (n=194) who voluntarily enrolled. Additionally, we tested whether parents habituate to a pattern of tuning in to anticipated scheduled receipt of text message content (n=57). In another study, parents of children in pre-K with supplemental parent-targeted programming (n=221) were randomized to receive bi-weekly SMS messages at varying/unpredictable times or the same time of the day. Lastly, we tested whether math specific text message content and reminders for math events affected parent take up of math learning materials and workshops in partnership with a play-based curriculum fostering home-school connections (n=195) implemented in NYC Head Start classrooms.

Emerging findings show that auto-enrolling parents to receive a companion SMS-based intervention leads to a substantial increase in receipt of intervention irrespective of whether a first time parent, number of children, depression concern, or receipt of WIC benefits. Our results also suggest an element of novelty is needed to translate an intention-to-treat to actual treatment of SMS-based intervention, i.e. parents pay attention to the first text message but this attention is not retained for subsequent scheduled messages. Lastly, findings suggest that SMS-based reminders are an effective strategy for following through on materials to be returned to teachers or attendance to parent directed programming. These findings suggest that BE-infused strategies can favorably increase SMS companion interventions in ways that optimize parent engagement with content.

Authors

• Michelle Spiegel, University of California, Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Yana Kuchirko, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Zoelene Hill, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lerzan Z Coskun, NYU
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lisa Gennetian, Institute for Human Development and Social Change, NYU
  Non-Presenting Author