Supporting Child Development Through Parenting Interventions in Low- to Middle-Income Countries: An Updated
Linlin Zhang1, Derrick Ssewanyana2, Marie-Claude Martin2
1Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
Frontiers in Public Health
|August 2, 2021
Summary
Parenting interventions promoting nurturing care significantly improve early childhood development in low- and middle-income countries. These programs show the most impact on cognitive, language, and motor skills, especially for vulnerable populations.
Area of Science:
- Global child development
- Early childhood intervention programs
- Public health in low- and middle-income countries
Background:
- Over 250 million children in low- and middle-income countries face developmental risks due to poor nutrition and limited learning opportunities.
- Nurturing care—encompassing health, nutrition, safety, responsive caregiving, and learning—is crucial for mitigating adverse conditions.
- Parenting interventions integrating stimulation and responsive caregiving can enhance developmental outcomes for young children.
Approach:
- Meta-analytic review of 21 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving over 10,400 children in 12 low- and middle-income countries.
- Updated literature search up to December 2020 across multiple databases and gray literature.
- Random-effect model used to assess pooled effect sizes on cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional development, with exploratory moderation analyses.
Key Points:
- Interventions demonstrated small-to-moderate positive effects on cognitive (ES=0.44), language (ES=0.33), and motor (ES=0.21) development.
- Social-emotional development showed non-significant effects (ES=0.17).
- Greater effectiveness observed in programs targeting vulnerable groups (rural, low education caregivers), utilizing group sessions, and high dosage (≥12 sessions).
Conclusions:
- Parenting interventions fostering nurturing care are effective in enhancing early childhood development, particularly in vulnerable populations.
- Implementation of research-based parenting interventions in low- and middle-income countries presents opportunities for strengthening child development outcomes.
- Further research is recommended to evaluate the impact of the workforce and training on intervention effectiveness.
Keywords:
early childhood developmentlow- and middle-income countriesparenting interventionstimulationsystematic reviewMore Related Videos
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