Effects of Daily Food Insecurity on Parent Wellbeing and Behavior

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Food insecurity – defined as lack of consistent access to food of the quantity or quality needed to fuel a healthy life – negatively affects children’s socioemotional and cognitive development (e.g., Ashiabi, 2005) and parents’ psychological wellbeing (e.g., Dunifon & Kowalski-Jones 2003). One pathway through which food insecurity may affect child development is through parental stress and altered parenting practices that then influence child behavior (e.g. Ashiabi & Neal, 2007). This issue has been explored in the long-term, where food insecurity measured across months or years predicts long-term changes in parenting and child outcomes, but has not yet been explored in the short-term. Narrowing in on shorter time windows for food insecurity measurement and outcome may uncover short-term effects of food insecurity on child development (which may be similar to or different from the previously documented long-term effects), while also more accurately capturing mechanisms through which food insecurity affects child development, without months of life circumstances between time points. Thus, the goal of the present study is to explore the effects of food insecurity in the short-term on family functioning, specifically asking: how do daily changes in food insecurity relate to daily changes in parent wellbeing and parenting behavior?

Data are drawn from an ongoing evaluation of a school-based food assistance program conducted in two school districts in rural Pennsylvania. From January – June 2020, we collected daily reports of food insecurity, parent depression, irritability, and harsh discipline, which predict poorer child socioemotional outcomes, as well as child mood and behavior problems from a sample of low-income families in rural Pennsylvania (N = 272). Sample characteristics are presented in Table 1. Descriptive statistics (Table 2) reveal that there is substantial within-subject variability in daily food insecurity, with the majority of food insecurity variance occurring within, not between families, over time.

This paper estimates the relationship between daily food insecurity and four key parenting outcomes (depression, irritability, losing their temper with their child, and punishing their child) over time. These outcomes have varying time trends, parental worry/depression varying quadratically over time, and the others increasing linearly. After controlling for parental race and education, preliminary results suggest that, over time, daily food insecurity is associated with increased parental worry/depression (b = 0.152, SE = 0.008, p <.001), anger/irritability (b = 0.089, SE =0.006, p <0.001), temper (b = 0.012, SE =0.003, p <0.001), and punishment (b =0.012 , SE =0.003, p <0.001). Subsequent models will include family-level fixed effects to assess if daily changes in food insecurity predict daily changes in parent wellbeing and behavior, within a family. Additionally, we will explore how food insecurity timing, including one to two day lags between food insecurity and parenting, and chronicity, experiencing multiple days or weeks of high food insecurity, predict parenting outcomes. By examining daily effects of food insecurity, we will provide unique insight into how food insecurity influences family functioning, helping to inform practice and policy to enhance the wellbeing of children and families.

Authors

• Caitlin Hines, Georgetown University
  Presenting Author

• Samantha Steimle, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna D. Johnson, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna Gassman-Pines, Duke Univeristy
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebecca Ryan, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author