SynthesisPsychological bulletin
A systematic review and meta-analysis of partial correlations between caregiver cognitive stimulation in early childhood and child development.
Synthesis in Psychological bulletin. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Although caregivers' provision of cognitive stimulation (such as reading, number games, and play-based activities) is widely recognized as an important predictor of children's development, the strength of these associations can vary across developmental domains, sample characteristics, and study features. This preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis describes the existing literature and estimates the average associations between cognitive stimulation during early childhood (0-72 months) and children's cognitive, psychosocial, and physical outcomes. We prioritized covariate-adjusted effect sizes reflecting the association between caregiver stimulation and child outcomes, which were then converted to partial correlations and synthesized using multilevel meta-analytic techniques. In total, our review included 354 effect sizes from 128 studies, representing approximately 442,749 children across 60 countries. We found small, positive, statistically significant pooled partial correlations between cognitive stimulation and all child outcome domains (rsp = .07-.17). Cognitive stimulation was more strongly associated with development among children under 48 months of age. The strength of the associations did not vary by child sex, country-income level, study quality, cognitive stimulation measurement modality, or whether the model from which the coefficients were extracted controlled for family socioeconomic status. Accounting for publication bias did not invalidate our results. Findings suggest that cognitive stimulation is modestly associated with child outcomes across developmental domains and geographic contexts, even after accounting for potential confounding factors related to child, family, and structural conditions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.