Food security is a condition achieved when all members of a household have access to adequate food at all times for a healthy, active lifestyle. As of 2014, 14% of households in the United States were food insecure. Previous research has suggested that household food insecurity is associated with numerous adverse medical and psychosocial outcomes across the lifespan. In this narrative review, we examine current research on food insecurity, specifically as it relates to child psychopathology and risk factors thereof: namely, parental mental illness and poor diet and metabolic health. Moreover, we begin to speculate about behavioral and physiological mechanisms by which these conditions may influence one another, and discuss possible interventions through enhanced screening and treatment, parent training, and provision of high quality foods to vulnerable households. Further research is needed to the effects of child and parental mental health on metabolic outcomes in families with food insecurity.

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While irritability is a symptom included in multiple DSM psychiatric illnesses, it has remained an ill-defined and underresearched phenomenon until relatively recently. There have been multiple attempts made to measure irritability in childhood and adolescence. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the various approaches used in the measurement and empirical study of pediatric irritability. In this chapter, the authors describe attempts at measuring irritability with standardized diagnostic interviews, and then discuss how variable- and person-centered statistical models have shaped these earliest measures. The authors discuss models and measures that are emerging, including the construct of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder as well as measures such as the Affective Reactivity Index and the Child Behavior Checklist-Dysregulation Profile. They conclude that, given the transdiagnostic nature of irritability, efforts should be made to understand the relationship of irritability to various forms of developmental psychopathology using multiple methods.