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University of San Francisco

Does Child Sponsorship have a Positive Impact on the Quality of Life and Social Behavior of Sponsored Children? Evidence from Indonesia

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<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>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Arts in International and Development Economics
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Economics
Year dc:date.available
2013

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Carrillo, Mario
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Dr. Bruce Wydick

Subjects

dc:subject × 13

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/71
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:repository.usfca.edu:thes-1078

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of San Francisco
Base URL
repository.usfca.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Carrillo, Mario. Does Child Sponsorship have a Positive Impact on the Quality of Life and Social Behavior of Sponsored Children? Evidence from Indonesia. Thesis thesis, 2013. https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/71