Science· 2014Q1
Labor market returns to an early childhood stimulation intervention in Jamaica
- 780citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2014year
Short summary
A 2-year psychosocial stimulation intervention for growth-stunted Jamaican toddlers increased their earnings by 25% two decades later, allowing them to catch up to their non-stunted peers.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Weekly community health worker visits over 2 years taught parenting skills and encouraged cognitive/socioemotional interaction.
- The intervention increased earnings by 25% for participants 20 years after the study.
- Intervention participants' earnings caught up to those of a non-stunted comparison group.
- 105 out of 129 intervention participants and 65 out of 84 comparison participants were reinterviewed 20 years later.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
A substantial literature shows that U.S. early childhood interventions have important long-term economic benefits. However, there is little evidence on this question for developing countries. We report substantial effects on the earnings of participants in a randomized intervention conducted in 1986-1987 that gave psychosocial stimulation to growth-stunted Jamaican toddlers. The intervention consisted of weekly visits from community health workers over a 2-year period that taught parenting skills and encouraged mothers and children to interact in ways that develop cognitive and socioemotional skills. The authors reinterviewed 105 out of 129 study participants 20 years later and found that the intervention increased earnings by 25%, enough for them to catch up to the earnings of a nonstunted comparison group identified at baseline (65 out of 84 participants).
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Science, 2014 · DOI ↗
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