Energy Insecurity, Extreme Heat, and Maladaptive Coping: The Moderating Role of LIHEAP under Utility Disconnection Risk

• In Event: Multi-Level Climate Adaptation and Governance Across Individual, Household, Community, and City Levels

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Energy insecurity, the inability to adequately meet household energy needs, has emerged as an important dimension of social vulnerability in the United States. As climate change intensifies extreme heat events and energy costs rise, many low-income households face difficult trade-offs between maintaining safe indoor temperatures and meeting other essential needs. Under such conditions, households may adopt coping strategies that manifest as maladaptive behaviors (MBs), including enduring unsafe or unhealthy indoor temperatures (MB1) or reducing spending on basic necessities (MB2) to pay energy bills. These behaviors may increase health and safety risks, particularly during periods of extreme heat when cooling demand is high.While prior research has documented the importance of energy insecurity, less is known about how climate stress and energy assistance interact to shape household behavioral responses, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when more than 12 million U.S. households received at least one utility disconnection notice (UDN). This study examines the determinants of MBs among U.S. households during the pandemic and evaluates whether participation in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) mitigates these behaviors under utility disconnection risk and extreme heat exposure.Methods: This study uses nationally representative data from the 2020 U.S. Residential Energy Consumption Survey (N = 18,470 households). The outcome variable is an ordinal measure of maladaptive coping severity: no MBs, either MB1 or MB2, or both MBs. Key predictors include UDN receipt, LIHEAP participation, and extreme heat exposure measured using Cooling Degree Days (CDD).Ordinal logistic regression models estimate the associations of UDN, CDD, and LIHEAP participation with maladaptive coping severity. An interaction term between LIHEAP and UDN tests whether LIHEAP moderates the relationship between disconnection risk and maladaptive coping. Predicted probabilities are calculated across quartiles of heat exposure to assess how extreme heat conditions influence the likelihood of adopting one or both MBs.Results: Households receiving a UDN were substantially more likely to report severe maladaptive coping (Odds Ratio [OR] = 9.31, p < .001). LIHEAP participation moderated this relationship, with a statistically significant interaction between UDN and LIHEAP (OR = 0.37, p < .001). Among households receiving a UDN, LIHEAP recipients had 63% lower odds of severe maladaptive coping than those not receiving LIHEAP.Extreme heat exposure further intensified maladaptive coping. The predicted probability of adopting both MBs increased by 3.2 percentage points, from 19.0% in the second quartile (Q2) of CDD to 22.2% in the highest quartile (Q4). In the hottest conditions (Q4), thepredicted probability was 22.2% among households not receiving LIHEAP compared with 20.2% among LIHEAP recipients (p = .011), indicating greater vulnerability to maladaptive coping among households not receiving LIHEAP during extreme heat exposure.Conclusions and Implications: Utility disconnection risk and extreme heat exposure are key determinants of maladaptive behaviors among U.S. households during the COVID-19 pandemic. LIHEAP participation mitigates this risk, suggesting that expanding LIHEAP and incorporating extreme heat into program design and utility protections as part of broader social welfare programs may help reduce household vulnerability under rising climate-related energy demand, particularly among low-income households.

Author

• Chenyi Ma, Kean University
  Presenting Author