Relaxing an internal constraint of an individual at early stages of life is an approach that complements traditional policy interventions aimed to alleviate poverty. The Compassion International child sponsorship program focuses their work on the emotional, social, and spiritual development of sponsored children. This study investigates the impacts of child sponsorship on the quality of life and social behavior of sponsored children using age-eligibility as an instrument for sponsorship, a time preference experiment and a trust game. The study looks specifically at self-esteem, optimism, social trust, educational outcomes, patience and reciprocity of 286 sponsored children and 234 non-sponsored children between the ages of 4 and 23. The study also implements an innovative way of constructing summary indices using a method proposed by Anderson (2008). Results reveal child sponsorship does not have an effect on the quality of life of sponsored children. In fact, sponsored children seem to have less patience and reciprocate less than non-sponsored children. However the exploration of impacts by age shows that the program increases the self-esteem and optimism on sponsored children between the ages of 4 to 14.
","abstract_html":"<p>Relaxing an internal constraint of an individual at early stages of life is an approach that complements traditional policy interventions aimed to alleviate poverty. The Compassion International child sponsorship program focuses their work on the emotional, social, and spiritual development of sponsored children. This study investigates the impacts of child sponsorship on the quality of life and social behavior of sponsored children using age-eligibility as an instrument for sponsorship, a time preference experiment and a trust game. The study looks specifically at self-esteem, optimism, social trust, educational outcomes, patience and reciprocity of 286 sponsored children and 234 non-sponsored children between the ages of 4 and 23. The study also implements an innovative way of constructing summary indices using a method proposed by Anderson (2008). Results reveal child sponsorship does not have an effect on the quality of life of sponsored children. In fact, sponsored children seem to have less patience and reciprocate less than non-sponsored children. However the exploration of impacts by age shows that the program increases the self-esteem and optimism on sponsored children between the ages of 4 to 14.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Carrillo, Mario"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts in International and Development Economics","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Economics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Bruce Wydick"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-05-07T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2013-05-07T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:42:43Z","subjects":["Sponsored Children","Compassion International","self-esteem","social trust","optimism","Jakarta. Indonesia","Applied Behavior Analysis","Behavioral Economics","Cognitive Psychology","Econometrics","Experimental Analysis of Behavior","Growth and Development","International Economics"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/71","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Bruce Wydick"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Carrillo, Mario"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2013-10-03T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Economics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts in International and Development Economics"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Sponsored Children","Compassion International","self-esteem","social trust","optimism","Jakarta. Indonesia","Applied Behavior Analysis","Behavioral Economics","Cognitive Psychology","Econometrics","Experimental Analysis of Behavior","Growth and Development","International Economics"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/71"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Relaxing an internal constraint of an individual at early stages of life is an approach that complements traditional policy interventions aimed to alleviate poverty. The Compassion International child sponsorship program focuses their work on the emotional, social, and spiritual development of sponsored children. This study investigates the impacts of child sponsorship on the quality of life and social behavior of sponsored children using age-eligibility as an instrument for sponsorship, a time preference experiment and a trust game. The study looks specifically at self-esteem, optimism, social trust, educational outcomes, patience and reciprocity of 286 sponsored children and 234 non-sponsored children between the ages of 4 and 23. The study also implements an innovative way of constructing summary indices using a method proposed by Anderson (2008). Results reveal child sponsorship does not have an effect on the quality of life of sponsored children. In fact, sponsored children seem to have less patience and reciprocate less than non-sponsored children. However the exploration of impacts by age shows that the program increases the self-esteem and optimism on sponsored children between the ages of 4 to 14.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Does Child Sponsorship have a Positive Impact on the Quality of Life and Social Behavior of Sponsored Children? Evidence from Indonesia"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Bruce Wydick"],"dc:creator":["Carrillo, Mario"],"dc:date.available":["2013-10-03T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Relaxing an internal constraint of an individual at early stages of life is an approach that complements traditional policy interventions aimed to alleviate poverty. The Compassion International child sponsorship program focuses their work on the emotional, social, and spiritual development of sponsored children. This study investigates the impacts of child sponsorship on the quality of life and social behavior of sponsored children using age-eligibility as an instrument for sponsorship, a time preference experiment and a trust game. The study looks specifically at self-esteem, optimism, social trust, educational outcomes, patience and reciprocity of 286 sponsored children and 234 non-sponsored children between the ages of 4 and 23. The study also implements an innovative way of constructing summary indices using a method proposed by Anderson (2008). Results reveal child sponsorship does not have an effect on the quality of life of sponsored children. In fact, sponsored children seem to have less patience and reciprocate less than non-sponsored children. However the exploration of impacts by age shows that the program increases the self-esteem and optimism on sponsored children between the ages of 4 to 14.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/71"],"dc:subject":["Sponsored Children","Compassion International","self-esteem","social trust","optimism","Jakarta. Indonesia","Applied Behavior Analysis","Behavioral Economics","Cognitive Psychology","Econometrics","Experimental Analysis of Behavior","Growth and Development","International Economics"],"dc:title":["Does Child Sponsorship have a Positive Impact on the Quality of Life and Social Behavior of Sponsored Children? Evidence from Indonesia"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Economics"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts in International and Development Economics"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:42:43Z"}