Examining food insecurity among high school students: A risks and resources model

Abstract

This study examined the relationships between food insecurity, risks, and resources among adolescents attending a large high school in Northwest Arkansas. In a sample of 1,493 students, in which the majority are Hispanic/Latino and receive free and reduced lunch, food insecurity relationships were first assessed controlling for a number of sociodemographic variables, such as ethnicity, gender, and social class. In addition, a number of risk and resource variables were identified at four ecological levels: individual, family, school/peer, and community. These risks and resources were analyzed using a three-step ordinal regression model in order to examine how sociodemographic controls, risks, and resources were related to food insecurity. Statistical analyses revealed that depression, household structure, student risk, and neighborhood risk all were positively associated with food insecurity, controlling for sociodemographic variables. In addition, self-esteem, eating meals with family, and peer social capital were all significantly associated with lower levels of food insecurity, but did not immediately impact the "effects" of the risk variables. Collectively, these findings tell an important story about adolescent food insecurity and the role that social and psychological circumstances play in determining varying levels of food insecurity. This study highlights that children and adolescents can be reliable respondents and spokespersons of their own experiences with food insecurity.

Youth food insecurity in Ghana and South Africa: Prevalence, socioeconomic correlates, and moderation effect of gender

“…Overall, youth with more economic resources were less likely to be food insecure compared to youth with less or limited economic resources. Stevenson, Tadesse, & Belachew, 2012;Jomaa, Naja, Kharroubi, & Hwalla, 2018;McDonald et al, 2015;Smith et al, 2017;Vuong, Gallegos, & Ramsey, 2015;Walsh & Rooyen, 2015) and in young adults in high-resource settings (Baer et al, 2015;Dean & Sharkey, 2011;McLaughlin et al, 2012;Niemeier & Fitzpatrick, 2018). In the Ghana model, correlates included age of youth (in years), gender (male or female), household income quartiles (lowest, low, high, or highest) measured in Ghanaian cedi, number of household dependents, household asset ownership, parents' employment status (formally employed with regular salary/wage or informally employed without regular salary/wage), youths' frequency of saving money (every day, two to three times a week, two to three times a month, once a month, or once every few months or less), and number of hours that youth attended financial education classes (none, less than five hours, six to nine hours, or ten or more hours).…”