Evaluating the Effects of a Child-Focused Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Intervention in Laos

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dc.contributor.advisorMeaselle, Jeffrey
dc.contributor.authorWright, Dorianne
dc.date.accessioned2020-09-24T17:07:25Z
dc.date.available2020-09-24T17:07:25Z
dc.date.issued2020-09-24
dc.description.abstractYoung children living in poverty in low- and middle-income countries are more likely to experience undernutrition, infectious diseases, environmental contaminants, and unstimulating surroundings. Exposure to such risks during the first 1,000 days of life leads to significant inequalities in a child’s developmental trajectory. Child-focused water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions have the potential to help create improved environmental conditions that are necessary for children to thrive. The current study examined the effects of a low-cost, easily scalable child-focused WASH intervention (targeting children ages 0-3) that was delivered in a single session to caregivers in Laos, a lower-middle income country in Southeast Asia. Specifically, we examined the effects of the child-focused WASH intervention on caregiver and child outcomes when the intervention was delivered independently, and in combination with a similarly efficient intervention focused on responsive caregiver stimulation. Although the primary focus of this paper was to document the effects of the child-focused WASH intervention, we also examined synergistic effects related to the combination of the child-focused WASH and responsive stimulation interventions. Our results support the overall effectiveness of the WASH intervention on a number of important dimensions. First, caregivers found the WASH intervention to be beneficial to themselves and their children, and most believed that child-focused WASH behaviors would be easy to put into practice. Second, the WASH intervention had significant benefits with large effect sizes on caregiver WASH knowledge and self-reported WASH practices at one month post-intervention. The WASH intervention did not, however, appear to influence child physical growth outcomes or cognitive/language development by one month post-intervention. Nevertheless, children were less likely to experience a diarrheal episode post-intervention if their caregivers received the WASH intervention in addition to a responsive stimulation intervention. Together, these findings suggest that even a brief, single-session of a child-focused WASH intervention can produce short-term measurable effects on caregiver and child outcomes, especially when combined with a similarly efficient responsive stimulation intervention.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/25579
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregon
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserved.
dc.subjectChild developmenten_US
dc.subjectClinical psychologyen_US
dc.subjectEarly interventionen_US
dc.subjectGlobal healthen_US
dc.subjectParentingen_US
dc.subjectWateren_US
dc.subjectsanitationen_US
dc.subjecthygieneen_US
dc.titleEvaluating the Effects of a Child-Focused Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Intervention in Laos
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
thesis.degree.disciplineDepartment of Psychology
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Oregon
thesis.degree.leveldoctoral
thesis.degree.namePh.D.

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