Nudging Parent-Child Engagement: A Technology-based Intervention to Promote Child Development during COVID-19 School Closures in India

• In Event: Parenting during COVID

Abstract

COVID-19 related educational, public health, and economic disruptions have elevated the exposure to adversity in children across the world. The pandemic has thrown between 88 and 114 million people into extreme poverty (earnings less than US$1.90 per day), according to the World Bank’s biennial estimates of global poverty (Wall Street Journal, 2020). Among the hardest hit are children in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). India, specifically, is the 2nd worst pandemic-affected country in the world (John Hopkins University, 2021). Ninety percent of the most vulnerable households in India (second- and third-income quintiles pre-COVID) have experienced declines in income since the nationwide lockdown (Rustandy Center, 2020). With seventeen percent of its 1.4 billion residents in the 0-8 years age group, there may be both immediate and long-term adverse consequences for an entire generation of early learners, as nationwide school closures and household stress have been some of the prominent challenges faced by low-income Indian families (India Census, 2016) (Rustandy Center, 2020).
Parents can be both a buffer protecting young children from these disruptions or the mechanism through which crises in the environment affect the experiences of young children (Yoshikawa et al., 2020). Research documents the substantial differences in parental engagement between advantaged and disadvantaged parents and the importance of parental engagement to children’s future economic outcomes (Conger & Donnellan, 2007). Parent engagement during COVID-19 related schooling and financial disruptions may prove to be a pivotal factor in shaping children’s outcomes, particularly in children exposed to severe degrees of schooling and home disruptions.
Using a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) design, this research project implements a rigorously piloted evidence-based SMS-nudges program to spark changes in parent motivation and behavior. In Mumbai, India’s Malvani slum neighborhood, 525 families will be selected from five schools. After baseline phone-based interviews with parents to assess family characteristics and child outcomes, parents were randomly assigned into treatment and control groups. The treatment group participated in a 18-week parent education program facilitated by WhatsApp messaging (includes audio messages and video content), which aims to increase awareness about children’s educational needs, and promote parent engagement and investment in children. Data will be evaluated to understand the effectiveness of the program in promoting parent-child engagement during the ongoing school closures.
Parents were recruited from five partnering schools in the Malvani neighborhood (n=525). Schools were encouraged to participate by a local NGO that conducted an opening meeting with the local school leaders, resulting in seven schools showing interest, and five schools finalizing their involvement.
Preliminary findings: I define a MANOVA model using non-imputed data to observe the effects of the intervention between the treatment and control groups. The results show that there were no significant differences in the mean performance in cognitive development (literacy and numeracy squares, on a 5.0 point scale), but socioemotional learning (9.0 point scale) improved from a mean of 7.0/9.0 to 7.8/9.0 at 0.001 significant level.

Authors

• Anahita Kumar, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Elizaveta Brover, University of Pennsylvania

• Jasmine Bala, Project Balika

• Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania