Guilherme Lichand

All Publications

• When the Effects of Informational Interventions Are Driven by Salience - Evidence from School Parents in Brazil AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY Lichand, G., Cunha, N., Madeira, R. A., Bettinger, E. 2026; 18 (3): 101-134

  View details for DOI 10.1257/pol.20220777

  View details for Web of Science ID 001841972500004

• Non-Symbolic Magnitude Processing Is a Strong Correlate of Symbolic Math Skills in Children From Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Developmental science Bugden, S., Ansari, D., Lichand, G., Avornyo, E. A., Wolf, S. 2026; 29 (3): e70129

  Abstract

  The ability to understand and compare non-symbolic (e.g., dot arrays) and symbolic (e.g., Arabic numerals) magnitudes is a critical foundation for learning math. A meta-analysis has revealed that symbolic magnitude processing is a stronger predictor of math performance than non-symbolic, but the evidence base is restricted almost entirely to countries in the Minority World. It is unclear how the strength of the associations between symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude processing and math performance varies across contexts. An examination of cross-national similarities and differences in foundational numeracy skills is sorely needed. In the present study, we examine the predictive nature of symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude processing in school-aged children from Ghana (n = 350) and Côte d'Ivoire (CIV; n = 342), two West African countries in the Majority World. Contrary to prior studies from countries in the Minority World, we found that non-symbolic magnitude processing was a significant and unique predictor of math performance in 5- to 13-year-olds from Ghana. The strong association remains significant when controlling for symbolic magnitude processing, literacy, executive functioning, and socioemotional skills. A second preregistered study with participants from Côte d'Ivoire revealed the same pattern of results. These associations diverged from those that have been found in the Minority World and underscore the importance of taking a global perspective for understanding the cognitive precursors for math development. The data also highlight the potential use of the Numeracy Screener to measure children's understanding of numerical magnitude in classrooms around the world.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/desc.70129

  View details for PubMedID 41777095

• Reading ability conflates SES creativity gaps. NPJ science of learning Lichand, G., Lopes, L., Allums, S. 2026

  Abstract

  Who is more creative: high- or low-socioeconomic status (SES) individuals? This question is the focus of intense debates within both the scientific community and society at large, since creativity has been linked to innovation, productivity, and wealth generation. This question is, however, hard to answer; in particular, because creativity is typically assessed through standardized tests that build on reading and writing proficiency, which might conflate the relationship between SES and creativity. To overcome this challenge, we combine high-quality data on reading ability and experimental variation in reading requirements embedded in creativity assessments in a series of studies with 6-12th graders in Brazilian schools. We first document that established creativity measures exhibit sizable SES gaps, but that these gaps become much smaller and no longer significant once we parse out students' reading ability (Study 1). Next, in two randomized control trials, we have students complete divergent thinking tasks while experimentally varying reading requirements: in the control group, students had to read question prompts, just like in standard assessments (e.g., PISA); in the treatment group, enumerators read the prompts on their behalf. In both conditions, enumerators wrote down students' answers. We find that high-SES students outperform low-SES ones only when they read the prompt, but not when performance does not depend on reading ability (Studies 2 and 3).

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41539-026-00404-y

  View details for PubMedID 41741502

• Translation and cultural adaptation of the Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR) for Brazil REVISTA IBERO-AMERICANA DE ESTUDOS EM EDUCACAO de Paula, D., Alves, L., Silva, R., Roncete, K., Lichand, G., Yeatman, J. D. 2026; 21

  View details for DOI 10.21723/riaee.v21i00.2018402

  View details for Web of Science ID 001809705300002

• Sociodemographic predictors of depression among economically vulnerable mothers in urban Uruguay JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS REPORTS Kumar, A., Bloomfield, J., Balsa, A., Do (Heather), H., Cid, A., Lichand, G., Wolf, S. 2025; 21

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jadr.2025.100978

  View details for Web of Science ID 001612684600015

• Measuring Child Labor: The Who's, the Where's, the When's, and the Why's. PloS one Lichand, G., Wolf, S. 2025; 20 (6): e0322987

  Abstract

  Measuring child labor accurately is a major challenge: parents' and children's reports tend to differ dramatically, and there is typically no way to verify whose reports are truthful (if any). To overcome this challenge, this paper uses novel data from a cocoa certifier in Côte d'Ivoire that draws on satellite imagery to minimize under-reporting. Concretely, aerial photos allow them to select remote and hard-to-reach communities-where parents typically have not been sensitized by government or NGOs, averting social desirability biases-and to visit these communities while cocoa is being harvested-precisely when children in employment are very visible, making it easier for enumerators to impute it if parents still fail to report it. We compare their figures with those obtained from business-as-usual surveys with parents and children in these regions, and find that (1) reporting inconsistencies between parents and their children in fact decrease with household remoteness; (2) adults dramatically under-report child labor relative to the certifier data, by a factor of at least 60%; and (3) in turn, children self-reports are statistically identical to the latter. Taking advantage of an experiment that randomly assigned a text-message campaign to discourage child labor, we further show that parents' reports not only underestimate its prevalence, but can even lead to the wrong conclusions about the effects of policy interventions.

  View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0322987

  View details for PubMedID 40489453

• Measuring student mindsets at scale in resource-constrained settings: A toolkit with an application to Brazil during the pandemic. Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence Lichand, G., Ash, E., Arold, B., Gudino, J., Doria, C. A., Trindade, A., Bettinger, E., Yeager, D. 2024

  Abstract

  Mounting evidence that growth mindset-the belief that intelligence is not fixed and can be developed-improves educational outcomes has spurred additional interest in how to measure and promote it in other contexts. Most of this research, however, focuses on high-income countries, where the most common protocols for measuring and intervening on student mindsets rely on connected devices-often unavailable in low- and middle-income countries' schools. This paper develops a toolkit to measure student mindsets in resource-constrained settings, specifically in the context of Brazilian secondary public schools. Concretely, we convert the computer-based survey instruments into text messages (SMS). Collecting mindset survey data from 3570 students in São Paulo State as schools gradually reopened in early 2021, we validate our methodology by matching key patterns in our data to previous findings in the literature. We also train a machine learning model on our data and show that it can (1) accurately classify students' SMS responses, (2) accurately classify student mindsets even based on text written in other media, and (3) rate the fidelity of different interventions to the published growth mindset curricula.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/jora.13008

  View details for PubMedID 39166447

• Participatory Disease Surveillance for the Early Detection of Cholera-Like Diarrheal Disease Outbreaks in Rural Villages in Malawi: Prospective Cohort Study. JMIR public health and surveillance Valerio, M. G., Laher, B., Phuka, J., Lichand, G., Paolotti, D., Leal Neto, O. 2024; 10: e49539

  Abstract

  Cholera-like diarrheal disease (CLDD) outbreaks are complex and influenced by environmental factors, socioeconomic conditions, and population dynamics, leading to limitations in traditional surveillance methods. In Malawi, cholera is considered an endemic disease. Its epidemiological profile is characterized by seasonal patterns, often coinciding with the rainy season when contamination of water sources is more likely. However, the outbreak that began in March 2022 has extended to the dry season, with deaths reported in all 29 districts. It is considered the worst outbreak in the past 10 years.This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and outcomes of participatory surveillance (PS) using interactive voice response (IVR) technology for the early detection of CLDD outbreaks in Malawi.This longitudinal cohort study followed 740 households in rural settings in Malawi for 24 weeks. The survey tool was designed to have 10 symptom questions collected every week. The proxies' rationale was related to exanthematic, ictero-hemorragica for endemic diseases or events, diarrhea and respiratory/targeting acute diseases or events, and diarrhea and respiratory/targeting seasonal diseases or events. This work will focus only on the CLDD as a proxy for gastroenteritis and cholera. In this study, CLDD was defined as cases where reports indicated diarrhea combined with either fever or vomiting/nausea.During the study period, our data comprised 16,280 observations, with an average weekly participation rate of 35%. Maganga TA had the highest average of completed calls, at 144.83 (SD 10.587), while Ndindi TA had an average of 123.66 (SD 13.176) completed calls. Our findings demonstrate that this method might be effective in identifying CLDD with a notable and consistent signal captured over time (R2=0.681404). Participation rates were slightly higher at the beginning of the study and decreased over time, thanks to the sensitization activities rolled out at the CBCCs level. In terms of the attack rates for CLDD, we observed similar rates between Maganga TA and Ndindi TA, at 16% and 15%, respectively.PS has proven to be valuable for the early detection of epidemics. IVR technology is a promising approach for disease surveillance in rural villages in Africa, where access to health care and traditional disease surveillance methods may be limited. This study highlights the feasibility and potential of IVR technology for the timely and comprehensive reporting of disease incidence, symptoms, and behaviors in resource-limited settings.

  View details for DOI 10.2196/49539

  View details for PubMedID 39012690

• Neglecting students' socio-emotional skills magnified learning losses during the pandemic. NPJ science of learning Lichand, G., Christen, J., Egeraat, E. V. 2024; 9 (1): 28

  Abstract

  Did the dramatic learning losses from remote learning in the context of COVID-19 stem at least partly from schools having overlooked students' socio-emotional skills-such as their ability to self-regulate emotions, their mental models, motivation, and grit-during the emergency transition to remote learning? We study this question using a cluster-randomized control trial with 18,256 high-school students across 87 schools in the State of Goiás, Brazil. The intervention sent behavioral nudges through text messages to students or their caregivers, targeting their socio-emotional skills during remote learning. Here we show that these messages significantly increased standardized test scores relative to the control group, preventing 7.5% of learning losses in math and 24% in Portuguese, consistent with the hypothesis that neglecting students' socio-emotional skills magnified learning losses during the pandemic.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41539-024-00235-9

  View details for PubMedID 38594315

  View details for PubMedCentralID 9391221

• The lasting impacts of remote learning in the absence ofremedial policies: Evidence from Brazil PNAS Lichand, G., Dória, C. 2024; 121 (22): 1-9

  View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2316300121

• Nudging parents and teachers to improve learning and reduce child labor in Cote d'Ivoire. NPJ science of learning Wolf, S., Lichand, G. 2023; 8 (1): 37

  Abstract

  Whether SMS-based nudge interventions can increase parent engagement and improve child learning outcomes across diverse contexts such as rural West Africa is unknown. We conducted a school-randomized trial to test the impacts of an audio or text-message intervention (two messages per week for one school year) to parents and teachers of second and fourth grade students (N=100 schools, 2246 students) in Cote d'Ivoire. Schools were randomly assigned to have messages sent to (i) parents only, (ii) teachers only, (iii) parents and teachers together, or (iv) control. There were statistically non-significant impacts of the parents-only treatment on learning, although with typical effect sizes (d=0.08, p=0.158), and marginally statistically significant increases in child labor (d=0.11, p<0.10). We find no impacts of the other treatment conditions. Subgroup analyses based on pre-registered subgroups show significantly larger improvements in learning for children with below-median baseline learning levels for the parents-only arm and negative impacts on learning for girls for the teachers-only arm, suggesting different conclusions regarding impacts on equity for vulnerable children.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41539-023-00180-z

  View details for PubMedID 37704694

• Sociodemographic predictors of depression and anxiety symptomatology among parents in rural Cote d'Ivoire JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS Kumar, A., Bartoli, B., Lichand, G., Wolf, S. 2023; 338: 1-9

  Abstract

  In Côte d'Ivoire, cocoa farming is a widespread practice in rural households, an occupation with increased risks of depression and anxiety exacerbated by economic instability. We used the Goldberg-18 Depression and Anxiety diagnostic tool to identify predictors of depressive and anxiety symptomatology among a sample of parents in rural cocoa farming communities.In a cross-sectional survey, the Goldberg-18 was administered to Ivorian parents (N = 2471). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to confirm the factor structure of the assessment tool, and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression with clustered standard errors was used to identify sociodemographic predictors of symptomatology.CFA showed adequate fit statistics for a two-factor model measuring depressive and anxiety symptoms. Among respondents, 87 % screened positive for requiring further referral for clinical diagnosis. Sociodemographic predictors of depressive and anxiety symptoms were similar for males and females. For the total sample, higher monthly income, more years of education, and belonging to the Mandinka ethnic group predicted fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms. In contrast, higher depressive and anxiety symptomatology were associated with age. Single marital status predicted increased anxiety but not depressive symptoms for the full sample model and the female only sample, but not the male sample.This is a cross-sectional study.The Goldberg-18 measures distinct domains of depressive and anxiety symptoms in a rural Ivorian sample. Age and single marital status are predictors of increased symptoms. Higher monthly income, higher education, and certain ethnic affiliations are protective factors.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jad.2023.05.060

  View details for Web of Science ID 001019629200001

  View details for PubMedID 37245553

• Participatory Surveillance for COVID-19 Trend Detection in Brazil: Cross-sectional Study JMIR PUBLIC HEALTH AND SURVEILLANCE Wittwer, S., Paolotti, D., Lichand, G., Leal Neto, O. 2023; 9: e44517

  Abstract

  The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the necessity of a well-functioning surveillance system to detect and mitigate disease outbreaks. Traditional surveillance (TS) usually relies on health care providers and generally suffers from reporting lags that prevent immediate response plans. Participatory surveillance (PS), an innovative digital approach whereby individuals voluntarily monitor and report on their own health status via web-based surveys, has emerged in the past decade to complement traditional data collection approaches.This study compared novel PS data on COVID-19 infection rates across 9 Brazilian cities with official TS data to examine the opportunities and challenges of using PS data, and the potential advantages of combining the 2 approaches.The TS data for Brazil are publicly accessible on GitHub. The PS data were collected through the Brazil Sem Corona platform, a Colab platform. To gather information on an individual's health status, each participant was asked to fill out a daily questionnaire on symptoms and exposure in the Colab app.We found that high participation rates are key for PS data to adequately mirror TS infection rates. Where participation was high, we documented a significant trend correlation between lagged PS data and TS infection rates, suggesting that PS data could be used for early detection. In our data, forecasting models integrating both approaches increased accuracy up to 3% relative to a 14-day forecast model based exclusively on TS data. Furthermore, we showed that PS data captured a population that significantly differed from a traditional observation.In the traditional system, the new recorded COVID-19 cases per day are aggregated based on positive laboratory-confirmed tests. In contrast, PS data show a significant share of reports categorized as potential COVID-19 cases that are not laboratory confirmed. Quantifying the economic value of PS system implementation remains difficult. However, scarce public funds and persisting constraints to the TS system provide motivation for a PS system, making it an important avenue for future research. The decision to set up a PS system requires careful evaluation of its expected benefits, relative to the costs of setting up platforms and incentivizing engagement to increase both coverage and consistent reporting over time. The ability to compute such economic tradeoffs might be key to have PS become a more integral part of policy toolkits moving forward. These results corroborate previous studies when it comes to the benefits of an integrated and comprehensive surveillance system, and shed light on its limitations and on the need for additional research to improve future implementations of PS platforms.

  View details for DOI 10.2196/44517

  View details for Web of Science ID 001016447900012

  View details for PubMedID 36888908

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10138922

• Executive Functions, Motivation, and Children's Academic Development in Cote d'Ivoire DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Finch, J. E., Wolf, S., Lichand, G. 2022; 58 (12): 2287-2301

  Abstract

  The role of executive function skills and motivation in supporting children's academic achievement is well-documented, but the vast majority of evidence is from high-income countries. Classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa tend to be large, teacher-driven, and lecture-focused, which may provide extra challenges for children to stay engaged in the learning process. Based in self-regulated learning theory, we tested the contributions of executive functions and motivation for children's literacy and numeracy skills over 1 school year. Our preregistered study of 2,500 primary school students in Côte d'Ivoire used lagged models with a robust set of demographic covariates. Executive functions were directly assessed, and children reported on their levels of motivation for schooling. Findings indicated strong longitudinal continuity of both literacy and numeracy skills over the academic year. Further, we found unique associations of executive functions and intrinsic motivation with changes in children's literacy skills and a unique association of executive functions, but not intrinsic motivation, with changes in children's numeracy skills over the school year. Overall, these results provide evidence for the importance of nonacademic skills for children's learning in a rural, sub-Saharan African context. Implications include improving access to preprimary education, the quality of primary school experiences, and teacher training and supports to increase children's early academic skills, self-regulation skills, and motivation for learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

  View details for DOI 10.1037/dev0001423

  View details for Web of Science ID 000850636800001

  View details for PubMedID 36074592

• The impacts of remote learning in secondary education during the pandemic in Brazil (May, 10.1038/s41562-022-01350-6, 2022) NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR Lichand, G., Doria, C., Leal-Neto, O., Fernandes, J. 2022; 6 (8): 1180

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41562-022-01420-9

  View details for Web of Science ID 000819688500001

  View details for PubMedID 35778510

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC9391220

• The impacts of remote learning in secondary education during the pandemic in Brazil NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR Lichand, G., Doria, C., Leal-Neto, O., Cossi Fernandes, J. 2022; 6 (8): 1079-1086

  Abstract

  The transition to remote learning in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) might have led to dramatic setbacks in education. Taking advantage of the fact that São Paulo State featured in-person classes for most of the first school quarter of 2020 but not thereafter, we estimate the effects of remote learning in secondary education using a differences-in-differences strategy that contrasts variation in students' outcomes across different school quarters, before and during the pandemic. We also estimate intention-to-treat effects of reopening schools in the pandemic through a triple-differences strategy, contrasting changes in educational outcomes across municipalities and grades that resumed in-person classes or not over the last school quarter in 2020. We find that, under remote learning, dropout risk increased by 365% while test scores decreased by 0.32 s.d., as if students had only learned 27.5% of the in-person equivalent. Partially resuming in-person classes increased test scores by 20% relative to the control group.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41562-022-01350-6

  View details for Web of Science ID 000805552000001

  View details for PubMedID 35618779

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC9391221

• Combining Wearable Devices and Mobile Surveys to Study Child and Youth Development in Malawi: Implementation Study of a Multimodal Approach JMIR PUBLIC HEALTH AND SURVEILLANCE Neto, O., Haenni, S., Phuka, J., Ozella, L., Paolotti, D., Cattuto, C., Robles, D., Lichand, G. 2021; 7 (3): e23154

  Abstract

  Multimodal approaches have been shown to be a promising way to collect data on child development at high frequency, combining different data inputs (from phone surveys to signals from noninvasive biomarkers) to understand children's health and development outcomes more integrally from multiple perspectives.The aim of this work was to describe an implementation study using a multimodal approach combining noninvasive biomarkers, social contact patterns, mobile surveying, and face-to-face interviews in order to validate technologies that help us better understand child development in poor countries at a high frequency.We carried out a mixed study based on a transversal descriptive analysis and a longitudinal prospective analysis in Malawi. In each village, children were sampled to participate in weekly sessions in which data signals were collected through wearable devices (electrocardiography [ECG] hand pads and electroencephalography [EEG] headbands). Additionally, wearable proximity sensors to elicit the social network were deployed among children and their caregivers. Mobile surveys using interactive voice response calls were also used as an additional layer of data collection. An end-line face-to-face survey was conducted at the end of the study.During the implementation, 82 EEG/ECG data entry points were collected across four villages. The sampled children for EEG/ECG were 0 to 5 years old. EEG/ECG data were collected once a week. In every session, children wore the EEG headband for 5 minutes and the ECG hand pad for 3 minutes. In total, 3531 calls were sent over 5 weeks, with 2291 participants picking up the calls and 984 of those answering the consent question. In total, 585 people completed the surveys over the course of 5 weeks.This study achieved its objective of demonstrating the feasibility of generating data through the unprecedented use of a multimodal approach for tracking child development in Malawi, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. Above and beyond its multiple dimensions, the dynamics of child development are complex. It is the case not only that no data stream in isolation can accurately characterize it, but also that even if combined, infrequent data might miss critical inflection points and interactions between different conditions and behaviors. In turn, combining different modes at a sufficiently high frequency allows researchers to make progress by considering contact patterns, reported symptoms and behaviors, and critical biomarkers all at once. This application showcases that even in developing countries facing multiple constraints, complementary technologies can leverage and accelerate the digitalization of health, bringing benefits to populations that lack new tools for understanding child well-being and development.

  View details for DOI 10.2196/23154

  View details for Web of Science ID 000637363200006

  View details for PubMedID 33536159

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7980111