PEN
Randomized evaluation of a parental education training program and its impacts on children's early childhood development outcomes in Nepal
Arestoff, F., Bertelli, O., Djemaï, E., Ghimire, D., & Sharma, U. (2026). Impact Evaluation of Parental Education Campaign on Child Development in Nepal. DIAL Working Paper n.2025-07
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This study assesses the impacts of a parental education community training on child development in Nepal. Relying on a sample of approximately 1,000 households, we randomly vary the access to the intervention. A few months after the end of the intervention, children in the treatment group exhibit significantly higher scores on early childhood development indica- tors—both overall and across linguistic, motor, and cognitive domains. In turn, the intervention has no sizable effects on anthropometric outcomes. Mechanism analysis reveals that the program improves parental knowledge about child development and enhances the quality of parent-child interactions.