Synthesizing and Interpreting the Evidence on Early Interventions

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Synthesizing and interpreting the evidence on early interventions This research application has three specific, interrelated aims: (1) to systematically compare the major experimental early childhood intervention programs (Perry, Abecedarian, Chicago Parent-Child Centers, Nurse Family Partnership and Infant Health and Development Program) and the major nonexperimental family influence studies (NLSY79/97, CNLSY79, PSID, NSFH, HSB, AddHealth, NELS88, ECLS-K, NCDS58.and BCS70); (2) develop and implement small-sample testing to make full use of the longitudinal aspect of the data, as well as using vectors of outcome measures to recognize the multiple hypotheses associated with the null of no treatment effects; (3) develop and apply dynamic models of cognitive and noncognitive skill development to interpret the evidence from the experimental and nonexperimental studies, which will allow for synthesis within a common framework. The long-term objective of the proposed research is to build upon the economist's study of human development by extending and uniting the research with the study of child development in the field of psychology. This translates into building economic models of skill formation that take into account cognitive and socioemotional skills, as well as models that recognize dynamic stages of the lifecycle. Another important long-term objective is to produce a framework that will allow policy analysts to place diverse interventions on a common footing, to compare their relative effectiveness, and to estimate the cost of later remediation for early disadvantage. The proposed research adheres to NIH's mission to seek fundamental knowledge about behavior, but more importantly it adds to the application of that knowledge in understanding the critical components of an effective intervention targeting populations such as pregnant mothers who smoke or low-birthweight infants.