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  Introduction  
 
The Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF) is a longitudinal, multi-level study of rural children's welfare outcomes, including education, health, and psycho-social development. The study focuses on the following issues:
children's academic achievement, educational attitudes, behaviors, and experiences, psycho-social development, and physical health
attitudes and practices of children, families, and teachers about parenting and schooling
the mechanisms (home, community, school) linking poverty to children's welfare outcomes
rural children's human capital acquisition and subsequent labor outcomes

 
The design of the first wave (GSCF-1, implemented in the year 2000) consisted of the following elements:
2000 children in 20 rural counties aged 9-12 in July 2000
information from the children's mothers, household heads, home-room teachers, school principals, and village leaders
a census of primary school teachers and school principals in sampled villages
The second wave (GSCF-2, implemented in 2004) supplemented the GSCF-1 sample design with the following elements:
a sample of all oldest younger siblings of school age (age 7 and older in 2004)
a sample of all fathers of target children
surveys of township health clinic directors
a supplemental sample (not part of GSCF-1) for an eyeglass intervention
Goals of the project are to inform the design of policies and interventions that will improve the quality of life for rural children and to attract the attention of a broader scholarly community to rural children's issues in China. Wave 1 of the GSCF was funded by The Spencer Foundation. Wave 2 was supported by The Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health, and by the World Bank. Wave 3 will be supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK).