Fostering early childhood development in low-resource communities : evidence from a group-based parenting intervention in Tanzania
Abstract
Group-based parent training programmes present an affordable means to influence the early experiences of children at scale. This paper reports evidence on the effectiveness of a practice-led intervention piloted in rural Tanzania evaluated through a matched control study design. The core of the programme is an 8–10 week caregiver training course led by local facilitators, built around early stimulation and nurturing care. After two years of implementation, the intervention led to improvements in the development of 3-year olds of 0.29 standard deviations. Detailed data on caregivers indicates that these improvements are due to changes in the type and frequency of caregiver-child interactions for both mothers and fathers, as well as the quality of play materials in the home.
Citation
Leighton , M A , Martine , A & Massaga , J 2023 , ' Fostering early childhood development in low-resource communities : evidence from a group-based parenting intervention in Tanzania ' , World Development , vol. 170 , 106335 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106335
Publication
World Development
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0305-750XType
Journal article
Description
Funding: Scottish Funding Council (SEF0XFC020), Royal Society of Edinburgh (1041).Collections
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