Universidad de los Andes, Department of Economics, Calle 19A # 1-37 Este, Edificio W, Bogotá, Colombia.
Soc Sci Med. 2013 Nov;97:241-9. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.10.029. Epub 2012 Dec 13.
Rigorous evidence regarding the impact of early care and education on children's development comes primarily from high-income nations. A few studies from Latin America and the Caribbean have identified benefits of conditional cash transfer and home visiting programs on children's development. However, there is still controversy around the impact and cost-effectiveness of childcare approaches. Further research is needed to understand how scaled-up childcare settings may support the development of low-income children in Latin America. To that end, the present study sought to identify the effects of exposure to a subsidized childcare program in Colombia on children's nutritional status, cognitive and socioemotional development. This community-based program, known as Hogares Comunitarios de Bienestar (HCB), serves 800 thousand low-income children under age 6, delivering home-based childcare, supplementary nutrition, and psychosocial stimulation. We analyzed data on 10,173 program beneficiary children (ages 3-6) collected in 2007. We compared beneficiary children who had been in the program for a long time with beneficiary children who had been in the program for a month or less, by age group, to estimate program exposure effects. We used a matching estimator to correct for self-selection into different exposure levels. Results indicated that cognitive development improved 0.15 to 0.3 of a standard deviation (SD) after at least 15 months of exposure for children between 3 and 6 years of age. Socioemotional skills improved 0.12 to 0.3 SD for children older than 3 after at least 15 months of program exposure. No significant gains were found for nutritional status. The estimated benefit-cost ratio ranged from 1.0 to 2.7, depending upon varying discount rates. Findings lend support for a potentially effective strategy to promote the development of low-income children in Colombia and other developing nations.
关于早期保育和教育对儿童发展影响的严格证据主要来自高收入国家。拉丁美洲和加勒比地区的一些研究已经确定了有条件现金转移和家访计划对儿童发展的益处。然而，关于儿童保育方法的影响和成本效益仍然存在争议。需要进一步的研究来了解扩大规模的儿童保育环境如何支持拉丁美洲低收入儿童的发展。为此，本研究旨在确定哥伦比亚补贴儿童保育计划对儿童营养状况、认知和社会情感发展的影响。这个名为 Hogares Comunitarios de Bienestar (HCB) 的基于社区的计划为 6 岁以下的 80 万名低收入儿童提供家庭儿童保育、补充营养和心理社会刺激。我们分析了 2007 年收集的 10173 名项目受益儿童（3-6 岁）的数据。我们按年龄组比较了长期参加该计划的受益儿童和参加该计划不到一个月的受益儿童，以估计项目的暴露效应。我们使用匹配估计器来纠正不同暴露水平的自选择。结果表明，3 至 6 岁儿童在至少 15 个月的暴露后，认知发展提高了 0.15 到 0.3 个标准差（SD）。3 岁以上儿童的社会情感技能在至少 15 个月的项目暴露后提高了 0.12 到 0.3 SD。营养状况没有显著改善。根据不同的贴现率，估计的效益成本比范围为 1.0 至 2.7。研究结果为在哥伦比亚和其他发展中国家促进低收入儿童发展的潜在有效策略提供了支持。
