Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and UNC’s School of Education received a $12.8-million grant to continue the Family Life Project, a study of the effects of rural life on child development. Researchers for the Family Life Project have monitored 1,292 children from three Eastern North Carolina counties and three Central Pennsylvania counties — regions of high child rural poverty.

The Family Life Project is the largest study of its kind to date, and researchers believe that the findings will have a significant impact on local and national policies involving rural child poverty.

The grant was awarded by the National Institutes of Health and will be used to fund the second phase of the project.

During the first phase of the project, which began in 2002, researchers monitored the development of these children from birth, and during the second 5-year phase researchers will observe the children as they enter school.