Poster #34 - Food Insecurity in Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Families: Relations with Caregiver Depression and Child Language

• In Event: Poster Session 07

Abstract

Despite their essential role in crop production and harvesting for the U.S. economy, families of migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) are at elevated risk of food insecurity (Smith & Cuesta, 2018; Weigel et al., 2007). Food insecurity is linked with elevated levels of parental depression (Garg et al., 2015) however, the nature of this association and its relevance to child-level outcomes in MSFW families is unclear. In broader populations, parental depression has been linked to reduced sensitivity and consequently may be associated longitudinally with poor language outcomes (Field, 2010; Baker & Kuhn, 2018). In Hispanic parents specifically, parental depression is associated with reduced school readiness (Palermo et al., 2018), and food insecurity is concurrently associated with both parental depression and longitudinally with behavioral problems (Nagata et al., 2019) However, it is unclear whether food insecurity may be associated directly or indirectly with child language, or whether any effects of food insecurity on child language may operate through parental depression.

This analysis uses secondary data from the 2017 Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Study (Caswell et al., 2017) to explore links between parental self-reported food insecurity, depression, and their child’s language skills. 750 children (Mage= 3.72 years) and their families were included in the study, and 540 had complete demographic data. Full information maximum likelihood estimation (Enders, 20021) was used in these analyses to deal with missing data. A structural equation modeling approach was used to explore direct relations between a) food insecurity and parental depression and b) parental depression and child’s home (Spanish) language skill, followed by c) indirect mediation of food insecurity on language, through depression. Several parent items assessing food insecurity loaded well onto a latent factor, and observed variables were used for parental depression (measured with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D, Radloff, 1977) and child language (the Preschool Language Scales (PLS-5, Zimmerman et al., 2017) for children > 24 months or the McArthur Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas (IDHC; Jackson-Maldonado, 2003) for children <24 months.) Demographic controls for parent education, child gender, family income-needs ratio, and family mobility were included in models.

Fit for the full structural model was adequate (CFI=.94, TLI=.89) Results indicate that food insecurity was linked with parental depression (B=.24, p<.001) but not directly with language (B=0.008, p=.47) and there was no significant mediation through parent depression on language (B=-.07, p=.07). Implications for early childhood programs supporting parent mental health and child language development and for family service and childcare program workers supporting potentially food-insecure parents who work in agricultural settings are discussed.

Authors

• Sarah Pedonti, Western Carolina University
  Presenting Author

• Derek Raymond Becker, Western Carolina University

• Cathy Lauren Grist, Western Carolina University