A Longitudinal Analysis of ECD Program Effects on the Health, Nutrition, and Psychosocial Development of Filipino Children

Elizabeth King, World Bank Group
Socorro Gultiano, University of San Carlos

Early childhood development (ECD) is thought to shape schooling and lifetime productivities. But there has been little analysis of impacts of ECD programs in developing countries, particularly with longitudinal data on individual children, and to what extent policy effects are mediated by family and community background. This paper analyzes unique longitudinal pre- and post-program survey data on children, their families, and service-providers in a Filipino ECD program. It investigates short-run impacts on children not only of contact with ECD programs, but of specific program characteristics, such as knowledge, aptitude and behaviors of service providers. The program evaluation measured children's health and nutritional status and also developed and applied instruments to measure children's cognitive and psychosocial development. The paper also explores effects of programs on parental care and how program impacts are mediated by family and community background, all with control for unobserved fixed individual, family and community factors.