Rural Poverty & Childhood Development
Tuesday, January 22 2008
by Frank Stasio and Olympia Stone
In the U.S. today, a shocking 22% of rural children live in poverty. Although much is known about poverty in urban areas, few have studied the effects of rural poverty on children. Five years ago, a team of investigators at UNC embarked on the Family Life Project, a study that has been following over 1200 children from birth, to determine poverty’s effect on a child’s development. Earlier this month, the study received a $12.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue research. The study's principal investigator, Lynne Vernon-Feagans, joins host Frank Stasio to discuss the ground-breaking study and its initial findings.
