Research

Work in Progress (Postdoctoral project):

Handbook of Parental Practices, Learning from Local and Global Knowledge: A Randomized Controlled Trial in India (with Sayantan Ghosal, Patricio Dalton, Sanchari Roy, Theodore Koutmeridis, Michele Schweisfurth)

Abstract: Home learning experience with parental involvement is a powerful determinant of children’s academic achievement but can also be a source of sharp inequalities. While leveraging parents has the potential to increase achievement, low socioeconomic status is a challenge to effective parental involvement, due to lack of resources and knowledge. Through a randomized controlled trial in collaboration with the Government of Delhi in India, we aim to evaluate the impact of parent-to-parent knowledge sharing based on a curated handbook on effective parental practices in home learning environment to mitigate children’s learning losses in the post-pandemic period. In addition, we also investigate whether gender identity of the parents at both ends of the interaction makes a difference to the outcomes.

See the Handbook of Parental Practices.

Job Market Paper:

Grit under Adversity: A lab-in-the-field experiment in India | View Full Text

Abstract: Grit is a key noncognitive skill that determines adult life success. However, there are gaps in our understanding of how grit is affected when children from disadvantaged families in developing countries are undergoing the experience of adversity, facing blocks in their daily endeavours, are suffering helplessly without any control over their suffering and feeling vulnerable. In this paper I investigate the impact on grit and locus of control (a moderator of grit), when children from disadvantaged families are in the midst of experiencing consequences of socioeconomic adversity, through a lab-in-the-field experiment in India. Further, I test whether belief-altering intervention, that is deemed effective in boosting grit, is effective under such circumstances. I find that when one is experiencing adversity, there is an immediate negative impact on one’s grit and locus of control, the impact on grit worsens when one is exposed to a simple belief-altering interventions, however, this impact is mitigated when the same belief-altering intervention is delivered by a role model.

Working Paper:

Development of locus of control: A comparison between adolescents from middle- and lower-socioeconomic class |View Business School-Economics, UoG Working Paper

Abstract: Locus of control is one’s perceived causality between action and reinforcements, with two extreme perceptions being internal and external. It is a key non-cognitive attribute that has serious influence on education and labour market outcomes, one’s behavioural response to adversities in life and wellbeing in general. However, a child is not born with any perception of control. Control expectancies are shaped through life’s experiences that are heavily determined by one’s socioeconomic class. This study compares the developmental trajectory of control expectancies between adolescents from middle- and lower-class households in India. The results suggest that as the adolescents from middle-class feel more in control of their lives as they grow older therefore aligning their locus internally. Though the adolescents from lower-class feel more in control early on in their lives, this sentiment declines much faster, equalizing with the middle-class group at age ten and diverging thereafter, significantly shifting towards external alignment of locus of control. This study extends our knowledge about biases in perception of control among adolescents from lower-socioeconomic class in a developing country like India. This study also highlights the paucity of longitudinal studies in this literature.

Published:

Urban regeneration and mental health: Investigating the effects of an area-based intervention using a modified intention to treat analysis with alternative outcome measures, Health & Place (2020) (with Ade Kearns, Matt Egan, Phil Mason).| View Full Text

Abstract: A quasi-experimental study of the mental health impacts of regeneration was carried out across fifteen communities in Glasgow, UK, grouped into five and then four types of intervention area. Regression modelling was undertaken to examine the effects of living in each type of area upon mental health (MCS-12 and SF-12 MH) and mental wellbeing (WEMWBS). Living in regeneration areas had no impacts on mental health or wellbeing, possibly due to incomplete implementation. Positive impacts from living in areas of housing improvement were not evident separately for areas of high-rise housing. Areas surrounding regeneration areas exhibited gains in mental health and wellbeing, contrary to notions of negative spillover. Moving between areas had negative effects, especially for those moving beyond the study areas. Changes in mental wellbeing appear less substantial compared with changes in mental health.

Could “holistic” area-based regeneration be effective for health improvement?, Housing Studies (2020) (with Ade Kearns, Matt Egan, Phil Mason).| View Full Text

Abstract: Regeneration is intended to tackle the negative effects of area disadvantage. Studies of health impacts of regeneration over thirty years have produced mixed and inconsistent results. This study translates the theory of wider determinants of health into a framework of five residential environments that may be impacted by regeneration: physical; services; economic; social; and psychosocial. It uses repeat cross-sectional survey data across a decade to assess differential change in physical and mental health for residents of regeneration areas compared with other areas. Across the deprived areas in the study, all five types of environment are associated with mental health, but associations are fewer and less consistent for physical health. The results indicate a small negative association between living in a regeneration area and physical health and a modest positive association with mental health.