DOI: 10.3886/e206742v1
title: Data and Code for: Informing Mothers about the Benefits of Conversing with Infants: Experimental Evidence from Ghana

description: Despite the well-established importance of verbal engagement for infant language and cognitive development, many parents in low-income contexts do not converse with their infants regularly. This paper reports on a randomized field experiment evaluating a low-cost intervention designed to boost verbal engagement with infants. The intervention entails showing recent or expectant mothers a 3-minute informational video and providing them with a themed wall calendar. Six to eight months later, mothers who participated reported a stronger belief in the benefits of verbally engaging with infants, more frequent parent-infant conversations, and more advanced language and communication skills of their infants. Treatment effects on objective measures of parent-child conversation (from a recording device) and infant language and cognitive skills (from surveyors' observations) were consistently positive but statistically insignificant. We find larger effects on objectively measured parent-child conversation immediately after the intervention, suggesting scope for a larger long-term effect had the behavior change stuck more. The intervention's potential for low-cost implementation via health clinics makes it a promising strategy for early childhood development in low-income contexts, particularly if complemented by efforts to support habit formation.<br><br>This is the data and code accompanying the article.
description: None
description: Response Rates: Of the 1,765 women approached, 1,462 were eligible. 283 were ineligible because of their child's age or due date, 17 because of their age, and 3 because they did not speak English or Dagbani. Of the 1,462 eligible women, 1,408 completed the survey and were administered the intervention. Thirty-eight chose not to participate partway through the baseline survey, 15 refused to participate, and 1 did not pass the COVID symptom screening.<br><br>We conducted the endline activities from September to December 2021, on average 6.4 months after the intervention. We completed interviews with 89\% of respondents, with no differential attrition between the treatment and the control group.<br>
description: In March 2021, we employed a team of surveyors from Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Ghana to enroll a sample of prenatal and postnatal patients from the health clinics. Surveyors approached patients before/after their prenatal or postnatal clinic visits and, if the patients were interested, screened them for eligibility. In order to participate, women had to (1) be aged 18-40 years old, (2) have an infant or be pregnant with a child who would be 2-18 months six months later at the time of the follow-up survey, and (3) speak English or Dagbani (the main language in Tamale).
description: Women visiting public health clinics in Tamale, Ghana for prenatal or postnatal checkups.<br><br>To be eligible, women had to (1) be aged 18-40 years old, (2) have an infant or be pregnant with a child who would be 2-18 months six months later at the time of the follow-up survey, and (3) speak English or Dagbani.<br>.
description: coded on-site observation; cognitive assessment test; on-site questionnaire;