Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention

Orazio Attanasio (), Helen Baker-Henningham, Raquel Bernal (), Costas Meghir, Diana Pineda () and Marta Rubio-Codina
Additional contact information
Orazio Attanasio: University College London
Helen Baker-Henningham: Tropical Medicine Research Institute, University of the West Indies
Raquel Bernal: Universidad de los Andes
Diana Pineda: Fundacio´n E´xito
Marta Rubio-Codina: EDePo@IFS
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Marta Rubio Codina ()

No 2018-073, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

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).

Keywords: early childhood development; parenting; early stimulation; program scale-up (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H43 I10 I20 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-exp, nep-lam and nep-ltv
Note: ECI
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Attana ... lation-nutrition.pdf First version, August 31, 2018 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention (2022)
Working Paper: Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention (2018)
Working Paper: Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention (2018)
Working Paper: Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hka:wpaper:2018-073

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