The project conducts a randomized controlled trial involving 1000 full-time undergraduate students at NUS. The trial has three stages.
In the first stage, participants will be recruited through campus advertisements.
In the second stage, participants who meet the eligibility criteria will complete a 30-40 minute online survey. The survey includes the following:
1. a background survey on items including age, race, family income and parental background,
2. a section on dating history,
3. questions on ideal/expected ages at marriage, expected probability of undergoing social egg freezing, and fertility and educational and career expectations,
4. a section on mental wellbeing,
5. an awareness survey on age-related onset of infertility, assisted reproductive technologies, and local policy initiatives related to age at marriage and childbearing,
6. an informational intervention. One-third of participants (333 individuals) are randomly assigned to receive accurate information on the age-related fertility survey items. One-third of participants (333 individuals) are randomly assigned to receive accurate information on policy-related survey items. One-third of participants (334 individuals) receives a fact sheet on diabetes in Singapore. Participants are asked to read the information thoroughly,
7. selected questions from c), which collects data on after-intervention intended ages at marriage and fertility and educational and career expectations, as well as questions about whether the questions were useful or led to anxiety.
In the third stage, the students' responses are linked to the Educational Data Lake managed by ALSET, Provost's Office, NUS, which collects data on students' module choices (whether within the same major, in a different major within the same faculty or in a different faculty) and CAP in the following academic semester and at graduation, graduation status, and starting salary and employment status six months after graduation. All participants are informed and these linkages are mentioned in the consent form.
After the data collection is completed, we will analyse the data using a difference-in-differences econometric model. Our model compares three sets of dependent variables at different points in time:
1. Ideal/expected ages at marriage and fertility, expected probability of undergoing social egg freezing, and educational and career expectations, compared before and immediately after the intervention,
2. Module choices and CAP, compared before the survey and in the following academic semester and at graduation, and graduation status,
3. Starting salary and employment status, compared between the control and treatment groups six months after graduation (multiple regression rather than difference-in-differences model)
The results are compared by gender, faculty, educational and career expectations, and other background characteristics, including dating history and mental wellbeing.
