Child Care and Early Education Research Connections

Skip to main content

Math is for girls: The unequal effects of text messaging to help parents support early math development

Description:
This study assesses the effects of two text-messaging programs for parents that aim to support the development of math skills in prekindergarten students. One program focuses purely on math, while the other takes an identical approach but focuses on a combination of math, literacy, and social-emotional skills. We find no evidence that the math-only program benefits children's development. However, the combination program shows greater promise, particularly for girls. Quantile regressions indicate that the effects are concentrated in the lower half of the outcome distribution. Results imply that girls may have started the year behind boys in math and caught up to and even surpassed boys when their parents have access to the program that combines topics. Our results also provide evidence that the structure of behavioral interventions can affect who benefits from the program, sometimes in unexpected ways, to produce meaningful differences in outcomes. We discuss and provide evidence for various hypotheses that could explain these differences. (author abstract)
Resource Type:
Reports & Papers
State(s)/Territories/Tribal Nation(s):
California

Related resources include summaries, versions, measures (instruments), or other resources in which the current document plays a part. Research products funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation are related to their project records.

- You May Also Like

These resources share similarities with the current selection.

Increasing access to Head Start through text messages

Fact Sheets & Briefs

Early childhood education: A text messaging approach to supporting enrollment

Reports & Papers

Supporting Head Start parents: Impact of a text message intervention on parent-child activity engagement

Reports & Papers
Release: 'v1.61.0' | Built: 2024-04-23 23:03:38 EDT