Resources and Relationships: Food Insecurity and Social Capital among Middle School Students

• In Event: 434 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Peer Groups: Formation and Implications

Abstract

Food insecurity is often framed as a technological problem, an issue of biological and population pressures, or a plight to be reconciled through economic development. This current study highlights the social components of the problem. We examine the relationship between food insecurity and social capital among 5th-7th graders attending an intermediate school in Northwest Arkansas (n =334) where nearly 70 percent of students participate in the free or reduced lunch program. The central research questions are: Does social capital have a direct impact on children’s food insecurity? And, does social capital mediate the influence of negative circumstances on children’s food insecurity?
OLS analyses find that social capital does have a significant relationship with food insecurity, even after controlling for multiple sociodemographic and circumstantial factors. However, based on these findings, there appears to be no mediation of circumstances by social capital. Additionally, we find that the quality of relationships among peers, rather than the quantity of close friends, plays a primary role lowering children’s food insecurity. Together, these findings tell a story that no other research has documented: relationships among middle-school children and how these social connections function to provide a shield from food insecurity. More broadly ths study informs the larger question of how hunger exists in a nation as rich as the United States by addressing food insecurity as a social phenomenon rather than simply an economic, technological, or biological one.

Authors

• Don Willis, University of Missouri

• Kevin M. Fitzpatrick, University of Arkansas