The Effects of Two Influential Early Childhood Interventions on Health and Healthy Behaviour
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This paper examines the long-term impacts on health and healthy behaviors of two of the oldest and most widely cited U.S. early childhood interventions evaluated by the method of randomization with long-term follow-up: the Perry Preschool Project (PPP) and the Carolina Abecedarian Project (ABC). There are pronounced gender effects strongly favoring boys, although there are also effects for girls. Dynamic mediation analyses show a significant role played by improved childhood traits, above and beyond the effects of experimentally enhanced adult socioeconomic status. These results show the potential of early life interventions for promoting health.
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The growing literature on the long-term effects of targeted preschool interventions indicates that it is possible to follow participants for much longer periods.
“The growing literature on the long‐term effects of targeted preschool interventions indicates that it is possible to follow participants for much longer periods (e.g., Conti et al., 2016; Heckman et al., 2010; Reynolds & Temple, 2008; Reynolds et al., 2010; Rossin‐Slater & Wüst, 2019).”
From Targeted school‐based interventions for improving reading and mathematics for students with or at risk of academic difficulties in Grades K‐6: A systematic review (2021) · cites this paper as Conti et al., 2016
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Conti, G., Heckman, J. J., & Pinto, R.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- University of Chicago (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Venue
- The Economic Journal
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2016-10-01
- Volume
- 126
- Issue
- 596
- Pages
- F28-F65
- ISSN
- 0013-0133 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-0297
- PMC
- PMC5331750
- OpenAlex
- W2136126831
- Cited by
- 213
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 57.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The Economic Journal (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Pritzker Children’s Initiative
- Buffett Early Childhood Fund
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD R37HD065072, R01HD054702)
- National Institute on Aging (NIA)
- Institute for New Economic Thinking
- American Bar Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
- Keywords
- early childhood intervention, Perry Preschool Project, Abecedarian Project, long-term effects, health outcomes, health behavior, gender differences, mediation analysis, adult socioeconomic status, early childhood education
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