Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Food insecurity remains a problem in the United States, particularly among households with children. Households with children, in fact, are twice as likely to report food insecurity as households that do not include children. The ways in which food insecurity may affect child development are likely to vary by child age, with some evidence indicating that young children are often shielded from hunger even in households with very low levels of food security. Adolescents, in contrast, may be more vulnerable to the negative effects of food insecurity. Indeed, there is some evidence that adolescents living in food insecure households have worse mental health than adolescents living in food secure households. However, many gaps in the literature remain, including how parents and adolescents views of food insecurity vary, how food insecurity is related to adolescent mental health over time, and which mediating mechanisms help explain links between food insecurity and mental health problems. This study will build on the literature on food insecurity and adolescent well-being by investigating the following research questions:

1. Across two different time points, what is the association between parent-reported and adolescent-reported food insecurity and adolescent mental health outcomes?
2. What is the association between change in food insecurity status and adolescent mental health outcomes over time?
3. How does parental mental health mediate the associations between food insecurity and adolescent mental health?

Data and Methods

This study utilizes data from the RAISE project, which includes multimodal data collection from a representative sample of adolescents age 10-16 in North Carolina at two different points in time, approximately one year apart. In wave 1, 717 adolescents and 678 parents participated. In wave 2, 541 adolescents and 516 parents participated, indicating a 75% and 76% retention rate, respectively. The sample is heterogeneous in terms of race and ethnicity, and 35% of the sample is economically disadvantaged.

At both time points, both adolescents and their parents were asked to report on food insecurity: adolescents completed a food insecurity scale adapted from the National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement (Merikangas et al., 2009); parents completed the USDA’s Food Insecurity Short Form (Blumberg et al., 1999).

At both time points, both adolescents and parents self-reported about their own mental health using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-6; Kessler et al., 2002), which is a measure of general psychological distress. Additionally, parents were asked to report about their children’s psychological distress using the K-6.

Analysis Plan

All three research questions will be examined using OLS regression models, with both adolescent- and parent-reported food insecurity as the key predictor variables.