Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Access to food is critical to the development of young children--without access to proper nutrition at very young ages, children are vulnerable to not only poor physical health (Fiese, Gundersen, Koester, & Washington, 2011; Jyoti, Frongillo, & Jones, 2005), but they can experience impairments to their cognitive development as well (Alaimo, Olson, & Frongillo, 2001; Ashiabi & O’Neal, 2008; Howard, 2011; Jyoti et al., 2005; Winicki & Jemison, 2003). Despite the wide availability and abundance of food in the US, millions of households--particularly those who are low income--struggle on a daily basis to provide food for their children. In fact, in 2012, roughly 17.6 million households were food insecure at some point in the year (they had difficulty providing enough food because they lacked resources to acquire food) (Coleman-Jensen, Nord, & Singh, 2013). Further, after the Great Recession  of 2007-09, a significant spike in food insecure households occurred; households experiencing food insecurity increased from 11% in 2004-07 to over 15%  in 2008-2011 (Institute for Policy Research, 2014). Particularly hard hit during this period were single parent households, households with children under 6 years of age, as well as Black and Latino families--all of whom were disproportionately represented among those who were food insecure after the Great Recession (Coleman-Jensen et al., 2013).

It is against this backdrop of food insecurity in our nation that I investigate the developmental trajectories of children residing in households who have experienced food insecurity during the post-Great Recession period of 2007-2009. Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K: 2011) and the method of multilevel growth modeling, I find significant impacts of both the incidence and severity of household food insecurity on the reading trajectories of children from kindergarten to second grade. Household food security status is captured by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDAs) 18-tem Food Security Module (FSM) administered as part of the ECLS-K parent interview.

My results demonstrate that at kindergarten entry, children from food insecure households tend, on average, to have reading achievement scores that are commensurate with their counterparts in food secure households. However, the reading trajectories of children in food insecure versus secure households diverge over time, resulting in a gap that places children from food insecure households .11 of a standard deviation (SD) lower, on average, by the end of second grade. Further, among children in food insecure homes, a rising level of food insecurity is associated with slower growth rates in reading. These results remain robust across different analytic strategies to account for clustering of children within schools as well as missing data.

These results are directly relevant to policies and programs that promote the nutritional status of children. In particular, these results bolster the justification for school-based nutrition interventions and programs, such as the national School Breakfast Program, which research has shown to not only counteract food insecurity (Bartfeld & Hong, 2011) but improve cognitive achievement as well (Frisvold, 2012).