Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey

The Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) is a longitudinal study of individuals in Los Angeles County, California, and of the family and neighborhood contexts in which they live. L.A.FANS was designed to answer key research and policy questions in three areas: the effects of neighborhoods and families on children's development; the effects of welfare reform at the neighborhood level; and the process of residential mobility and neighborhood change. L.A.FANS offers users the opportunity to study other important issues including: adult health and health disparities, immigrant well-being, social ties and neighborhood interaction, marriage patterns, ethnic identity, family survival strategies, and family dynamics.

Wave 1 of L.A.FANS was fielded between April 2000 and January 2002 in a stratified random sample of 65 census tracts. Wave 2 of L.A.FANS was fielded between August 2006 and December 2008, and interviewed respondents from Wave 1 as well as new entrants who moved into sampled neighborhoods after Wave 1.

Researchers and funding
L.A.FANS is based at the RAND Corporation and involves researchers at UCLA and the University of Michigan as well as other institutions.

The study was supported by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (http://www.nichd.nih.gov/), the National Institute on Aging (http://www.nia.nih.gov/), and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/). Additional funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research, the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Russell Sage Foundation.