Author(s)
Daniela Del Boca
Chiara Pronzato
Lucia Schiavon
This paper investigates the impact of parenting courses on fragile families’ time use with their children. Courses aimed at raising parental awareness of the importance of educational activities are offered in four Italian cities (Naples, Reggio Emilia, Teramo and Palermo) within the framework of the social program “FA.C.E. Farsi Comunità Educanti” and with the cooperation of the program “Con i Bambini”. To conduct the impact evaluation, we designed a randomized controlled trial involving random assignment of the families (mostly mothers). At the end of the intervention, we administered an assessment questionnaire both to the treatment group, which took the course, and to the control group, which did not. Comparing the outcomes, we find attending the course increased families' awareness of the importance of educational activities for children, the frequency with which they read to the child, and their desire to spend more time with the child.
Publication Type
Working Paper
File Description
First version, November 9, 2020
JEL Codes
J13: Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
D10: Household Behavior: General
I26: Returns to Education
Keywords
parenting
use of time
randomized controlled trial