Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Food Insecurity in the Lives of Families and Children

(Family and Child Policy)

Food insecurity is a significant problem facing a substantial number of low-income children and families in the U.S. Food insecurity leads to many negative outcomes for both children and adults, including malnutrition, developmental deficits, and mental health problems. This panel will present new evidence on the role that food insecurity plays in the lives of low-income children. Paper one uses daily diary methodology to demonstrate that food stamp recipient families with young children experience substantial within-month variation in daily food insecurity. Paper two uses the ECLS-B to examine changes in food insecurity status during early childhood and relations with family outcomes. Increases in food insecurity are related to worse parent mental health and more negative family functioning outcomes. Finally, paper three uses the ECLS-K to examine both the incidence and severity of food insecurity and links to trajectories in children’s reading skills. Results show that children from food secure and food insecure households have similar reading levels at kindergarten entry but that their reading skills diverge between kindergarten and 2nd grade, resulting in a substantial achievement gap between food insecure and food secure children. Taken together, these papers shed new and important light on food insecurity among families with children: how variation in food insecurity is related to nutrition assistance programs, potential mediating mechanisms, and effects on children’s outcomes over time.