Nair Sapna, Chandramohan Shivani, Sundaravathanam Nandhini, Rajasekaran Arvind Balaji, Sekhar Rathish
Institute for Financial Management and Research, LEAD at Krea University, Chennai, India.
Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Front Public Health. 2020 Sep 30;8:516. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00516. eCollection 2020.
Fathers' involvement in care and early initiation of cognitive development activities have a positive impact on a child's social-behavioral, cognitive-academic and emotional-psychological development. This research study, conducted in Tamil Nadu in south India (2017-19), employed a Cluster Randomized Trial to test the impact of techno-social innovations in improving the involvement of fathers in child-care on child development outcomes. Qualitative studies were used to inform the trial and provide insights into pathways of change. This paper discusses the design, implementation and results of the study through the monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) framework to provide an understanding of the perceptions among parents and service providers surrounding early child development, the adaptations and learnings through the intervention period, and changes that were brought about through the intervention. The study was at a Proof of Concept stage, and the primary learning objective was to keep the learning process going through the period of the study, as well as obtain evidence to inform future model development. The measurement for change process in the study occurred in three distinct yet interconnected stages. In the first stage, the program was planned, and the design was refined for both the implementation and evaluation of the project. The next stage was the actual implementation: with a learning loop during the execution of the main intervention. The third stage was intended to reflect on the adaptations and pathways to change through the project period and collate evidence for model refinement. The data collected from the formative research was used to design, develop and implement the intervention. Lessons in coordination with the government program not only brought policy visibility, access to secondary data, and enabled field research, but also provided access to a workforce with immense field knowledge and presence in the rural underserved population. In order to continuously inform the implementation process of the intervention, the feedback loops allowed for adaptions to be made at each stage. The findings provide insights for programming early childhood development interventions, especially interventions regarding improving father's involvement in child-care, and ways to leverage evidence in these interventions.
父亲参与照料以及早期开展认知发展活动对儿童的社会行为、认知学业和情感心理发展具有积极影响。这项于2017年至2019年在印度南部泰米尔纳德邦开展的研究，采用整群随机试验来测试技术社会创新对提高父亲参与儿童照料程度以及对儿童发展成果的影响。定性研究用于为试验提供信息，并深入了解变化途径。本文通过监测、评价和学习（MEL）框架讨论了该研究的设计、实施和结果，以了解家长和服务提供者对幼儿发展的看法、干预期间的调整和经验教训，以及干预带来的变化。该研究处于概念验证阶段，主要学习目标是在研究期间持续推进学习过程，并获取证据为未来模型开发提供参考。该研究中变化过程的衡量发生在三个不同但相互关联的阶段。在第一阶段，规划了项目，并对项目的实施和评价设计进行了完善。下一阶段是实际实施：在主要干预实施过程中设有一个学习循环。第三阶段旨在反思项目期间的调整和变化途径，并整理证据以完善模型。从形成性研究中收集的数据用于设计、开发和实施干预措施。与政府项目协调的经验教训不仅提高了政策的可见度、获取了二手数据并开展了实地研究，还提供了接触在农村服务不足人群中拥有丰富实地知识的劳动力的机会。为了不断为干预措施的实施过程提供信息，反馈循环允许在每个阶段进行调整。研究结果为幼儿发展干预措施的规划提供了见解，特别是关于提高父亲参与儿童照料的干预措施，以及在这些干预措施中利用证据的方法。
