Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention

Orazio P. Attanasio, Helen Baker-Henningham, Raquel Bernal, Costas Meghir, Diana Pineda and Marta Rubio-Codina
Additional contact information
Orazio P. Attanasio: University College in London
Helen Baker-Henningham: Bangor University
Raquel Bernal: Universidad de los Andes
Diana Pineda: Fundaci'n 'xito
Marta Rubio-Codina: Inter-American Development Bank
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Marta Rubio Codina ()

No 2145, Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University

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)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-exp and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/pub/d21/d2145.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

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)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2145

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Cowles Foundation, Yale University, Box 208281, New Haven, CT 06520-8281 USA
The price is None.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University Yale University, Box 208281, New Haven, CT 06520-8281 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Brittany Ladd ().