Considering the Role of Food Insecurity in Low Self-Control, Child Misconduct, and Early Delinquency

• In Event: Childhood Risk Factors and Life-Course Outcomes

Abstract

Purpose: The present study examines whether experiences of household food insecurity during childhood are predictive of low self-control, child misconduct, and preteen delinquency.
Methods: In order to examine these associations, we employed data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) – a national study that follows a large group of children born in the U.S. between 1998 and 2000.
Results: Children raised in persistently food insecure households exhibit significantly lower levels of self-control, higher levels of child misconduct, and higher levels of preteen delinquency than children who are raised in persistently food secure households, net of covariates. Ancillary analyses reveal that the link between household food insecurity and child misconduct is largely explained by low self-control, whereas the link between household food insecurity and preteen delinquency is partly explained by low self-control.
Conclusions: The general theory of crime may need to be expanded to account for the role of early life stressors and/or risks linked to a tenuous supply of healthy household foods in the development of self-control. Future research should seek to further elucidate the process by which household food insecurity influences childhood self-control and associated antisocial behaviors.

Authors

• Dylan B. Jackson, University of Texas San Antonio

• Jamie Newsome, University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute

• Michael G. Vaughn, Saint Louis University

• Kecia R. Johnson, Mississippi State University