LEAD · Leveraging Early Adolescence for Development: Longitudinal and Experimental Evidence from Ghana

Early adolescence is a key window for human development. Strategic timing of interventions during this life stage may seize opportunities and prevent risks; bolster the impact of earlier investments; and ease damages from previous adversity. Yet evidence on whether such programs can fulfil this potential, for which children, and through which channels, is scant, especially in low-resource settings, where 90% of the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents live. I will tackle these gaps by relying on a cohort of ~2,500 children approaching early adolescence. In 2015, this sample participated in a trial evaluating quality preschool education in Ghana and has been followed-up since: the program improved child development through middle childhood. I will re-randomise this sample at 12 years to test a parenting skills program to enhance early adolescent development through improved parenting support and parent-adolescent interactions. Children and parents will be re-interviewed when children are 13, 15, and 17 years through mixed-method data collection. Outcomes include adolescent social-emotional and academic skills, health (including stress biomarkers), and adult-life transitions. This data will allow testing dynamic complementarities between interventions during early childhood and early adolescence, or whether interventions in adolescence might compensate for earlier adversity in the short- and longer-term. Methodologically, these questions can be convincingly studied only if data are available for the same individuals over time, and if variations in exposure to early childhood and early adolescence programs are exogenously driven. This is the first study that addresses both requirements, providing a breakthrough. Heterogeneity by child gender and socioeconomic status, and mechanisms are further research foci. LEAD’s high-risk components are well-balanced by my in-depth knowledge of the field, methods, and study context, with high potential for scientific and societal impact.