An Early Childhood Internet-based and Family-based Intervention Study
An Early Childhood Internet-based and Family-based Intervention Study
The poverty rate among children under 18 years old in Hong Kong in 2015 was 18% after social
 welfare intervention. James Heckman, a Nobel Prize winner in Economics, advocates early
 childhood investment to enhance social mobility, given its lifelong impact of on child
 development. However, few randomized control trails have been used to examine the
 effectiveness of early childhood intervention in promoting social mobility through child
 development in Hong Kong. To fill these gaps, we propose an interdisciplinary intervention
 study involving academics from economics, sociology, social work, gerontology, education, and
 psychology to investigate methods to promote the social mobility of children living in
 poverty through early intervention.

 The overall objective is to enhance the developmental outcomes of children in poverty by
 utilizing parental resources within a family system, technological resources available in
 modern metropolis and the human resources enjoyed by the elderly in Hong Kong.

 The primary objective is to evaluate an internet- and family-based intervention to promote
 the development of children in poverty aged 24 months to three years. The examined outcome
 will be the developmental well-being of participating children, with the long-term goal of
 promoting their social mobility to break the cycle of poverty. In the long run, we aim to
 establish the proposed intervention in policy to promote the development of disadvantaged
 children.

 The secondary objective is to identify intergenerational volunteerism as a means for
 productive aging through a mentoring program using older adults as mentors to participating
 parents.
The proposed research consists of three phases. The first phase will be a cross-sectional
 survey with a sample of 1,000 cases from 60 nurseries cum kindergartens to explore the family
 demographics and developmental profiles of low-income children in comparison to others. The
 second phase will be a randomized control trail implementing a 24-month internet-based
 intervention with 200 toddler-parents dyads from 20 to 30 of the original 60 nurseries.
 Interventions will be delivered by older mentors professionally trained by the research team.
 All children, parents and elderly mentors will be evaluated through a set of outcome
 measurements to assess the effectiveness of the program. The last phase will involve the
 dissemination of research information that may become building blocks for policies on
 internet-based early childhood education, poverty alleviation and social mobility
 enhancement, as well as productive aging.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Parents who have children aged 24 months to 3 years

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Parents who have children beyond the above age range