CHAPEL HILL - Researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill have received a $12.8-million federal grant to continue a major study of how life in poor, rural areas affects children's development.

For five years, researchers have been following from birth nearly 1,300 children in three counties in Eastern North Carolina and three counties in central Pennsylvania. The grant, from the National Institutes of Health, will allow the research to continue as the children enter school.

The study is being conducted by the FPG Child Development Institute and the School of Education at UNC-CH. The new grant is the second for the Family Life Project, a study that started with a $16.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Lynne Vernon-Feagans, the study's principal investigator, said that the study could show that rural families don't have access to some services intended to help poor families.

Most current research on children in poverty is based in urban areas, she said, even though more poor children live in rural settings.