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For over 10 years, the at the University of Chicago has been investigating how parents make decisions. A key insight from our research is that what parents do does not always align with what they intend to do. This 鈥渋ntention-action gap鈥� can reduce parents鈥� engagement with their children, which in turn interferes with children鈥檚 skill development.

This gap is a of decision-making. People plan to save for retirement or stick to diets, but often fall short of their goals. In parenting, the stakes are higher: Not reading a bedtime story or skipping a day of preschool may seem momentarily insignificant, but small gaps in learning time , making it increasingly . 

Why do well-intentioned parents sometimes struggle to follow through with engaging their children, and how can behavioral science help parents close the intention-action gap?

The field of offers insights into what creates intention-action gaps and identifies practical ways to bridge the gap. Many of these approaches rely on the concept of 鈥溾�� 鈥� subtle changes in how choices or information are presented that make the desired action easier or more likely to occur. In parenting, nudges often come in the form of reminders, feedback, or other simple tools sent through digital technology. These nudges acknowledge that busy parents aren鈥檛 failing to engage their children in learning activities that are key to the child鈥檚 future because they lack love, knowledge, or good intentions; rather, daily life is full of friction and temptations.

has shown that 鈥減resent bias,鈥� a manifestation of the intention-action gap, is central to parenting choices. Parents, like everyone, often prioritize immediate rewards over future benefits. Raising a child requires long-term effort; while considerable research shows that reading books to a toddler boosts their language skills in the future, the benefits of today鈥檚 actions can be long delayed. Meanwhile, daily distractions and fatigue demand immediate attention.

This bias can cause parents to focus on the 鈥渘ow鈥� rather than the 鈥渓ater,鈥� even when they value activities like reading. In our study, we tackled present bias by sending parents text-message prompts and goal-setting reminders to read to their children from a digital library that we provided to parents. These reminders were intended to 鈥渂ring the future to the present.鈥� Parents who received these reminders read to their child over twice as much over six weeks compared to parents who received the digital library with no reminders.

Notably, the parents who gained the most were those who exhibited present-biased preferences in assessments given before the experiment began. In other words, the parents most prone to procrastinate on reading were the ones who saw the greatest improvements when we helped them overcome present bias. Parents without present bias already read regularly, so the extra reminders had little impact for them.

Tools to Help Parents Follow Through

Another successful example of narrowing the intention-action gap from our research lab is the 鈥溾�� study, a randomized controlled trial we conducted to increase attendance in Chicago鈥檚 publicly funded preschool programs. Our intervention sent personalized text messages to parents over 18 weeks, indicating the number of days their child had been absent and highlighting the learning opportunities they missed while not in school. The messages reminded parents of their commitment to adopt good attendance habits and their goals to help their child develop kindergarten readiness skills.

For children whose parents received these messages, preschool attendance increased by about 2.5 school days, and chronic absenteeism 鈥� a measure of missing 10% or more of the school days in a school year 鈥� decreased by 20% compared to the children of parents who did not receive the messages. The helped align parents鈥� actions with their long-term goals. This type of light-touch program is inexpensive and easy to scale, making it a for education policymakers aiming to reduce early absenteeism.

Technology offers a promising solution to close the intention-action gap. Our recent study provided families with a tablet preloaded with a digital library of over 200 high-quality children鈥檚 books. The tablet had no apps or internet access beyond the library to reduce distractions. The goal was to remove the obstacle of finding new books and to make shared reading as easy and engaging as possible. 

The impact on children鈥檚 language skills was notable. Over an 11-month trial, low-income children whose families received access to the digital library showed approximately 0.3 standard deviations more progress in language skills (equivalent to three months of language learning on the test we gave to children) than those who did not, moving from roughly the 41st to the 50th percentile nationally. Notably, the treatment impact was significantly larger 鈥� 0.50 standard deviation, equivalent to approximately five months of language learning on the test we gave to children 鈥� for parents who exhibited present-biased preferences in assessments administered before the experiment began (as in the PACT study). Sometimes the best way to narrow the intention-action gap is to reduce barriers to the intended action. 

From Research Insights to Early Childhood Policy

These go beyond academics: They offer a for early childhood policy. Traditional parenting programs often assume that if parents are informed about the benefits of their decisions or provided with free resources, they will naturally act accordingly. However, information and resources alone don鈥檛 always lead to behavior change, especially when cognitive biases interfere. 

Relatively low-cost, behaviorally informed interventions can directly address the intention-action gap. For example, text-message programs can be through school districts, pediatric clinics, or social service agencies to encourage behaviors like daily reading, conversations, or preschool attendance. , such as the library tablet in the CAPER study, could be integrated into public early education programs or library initiatives to ensure families have access to books and find them easy and enjoyable to use. 

Such approaches can promote equity by focusing on parents who face more cognitive biases or for whom these biases cause the most harm. Behavioral tools can help before children reach kindergarten, which research shows is the most effective and cost-efficient time to empower parents as active partners in their children鈥檚 development.

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