# Synthesizing, Interpreting, and Extrapolating Interventions to Foster Human Development

> **NIH NIH R01** · NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH · 2021 · $596,967

## Abstract

OTHER PROJECT INFORMATION – Project Summary/Abstract
“Synthesizing, Interpreting, and Extrapolating Interventions to Foster Human Development”
will support diverse scholars of early childhood development using different empirical strategies to investigate
the sources of treatment effects of successful early childhood programs and to compare the growth of skills by
age across them. It draws on a wealth of data collected on three influential programs (the Perry Preschool
Program, the Abecedarian Project, and Jamaica Reach Up and Learn) and subsequent implementations and
adaptations. Members of our team have actively designed, collected, and analyzed different subsets of these
programs evaluated by random assignment. Some programs have long-term follow-ups. This research has five
main aims: (1) Using common (across studies) dynamic analytical frameworks developed and applied in
different disciplines, we analyze longitudinal data on the growth of comparable measures of skills and
outcomes from major early childhood interventions targeted to disadvantaged children, controlling for family
and environmental conditions. We conduct mediation and moderation analyses to control for endogeneity of
intervention-induced changes in mediators and moderators. We examine the intra- and inter-generational
impacts of the interventions with long term follow up, taking participants well into their middle age (ABC) and
late middle age (Perry). These analyses adjust for attrition and non-response. We use both large sample
inferential methods and design-based small-sample randomization inference. We harmonize measures and
outcomes and require those we use to satisfy metric invariance criteria; (2) Building on our previous research,
we use empirically validated dynamic models to forecast experimental outcomes out-of-sample. We build
theoretically- and empirically-grounded tools to estimate the long-run impacts of short-run interventions that
will be available to other practitioners; (3) Update and extend cost-benefit analyses of early childhood
programs. For the first time, we incorporate impacts on adult children and siblings as well as impacts on
middle age and late middle age health and earnings of the original participants. We investigate the impact of
early childhood programs on social mobility; (4) Examine the effectiveness of home visiting programs. We
analyze the influential Jamaica Reach Up and Learn home visiting program and many programs inspired by
it. We compare child growth trajectories from these programs with those from more comprehensive omnibus
(and expensive) early childhood programs, many of which have a home visiting component. This will facilitate
isolation of the role of home visiting in promoting child development; and (5) We investigate in detail the roles
of parent (caregiver)-child, home visitor-child, and home visitor-caregiver interactions in promoting skill
development in a uniquely well-documented adaptation of Jamaica Reach Up: China REACH ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10299236
- **Project number:** 1R01HD103666-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
- **Principal Investigator:** JAMES J HECKMAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $596,967
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-19 → 2027-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10299236

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10299236, Synthesizing, Interpreting, and Extrapolating Interventions to Foster Human Development (1R01HD103666-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10299236. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*