Food insecurity affects school children's academic performance, weight gain, and social skills
TLDR
This study provides the strongest empirical evidence to date that food insecurity is linked to specific developmental consequences for children, and that these consequences may be both nutritional and nonnutritional.Abstract:
Food insecurity has been associated with diverse developmental consequences for U.S. children primarily from cross-sectional studies. We used longitudinal data to investigate how food insecurity over time related to changes in reading and mathematics test performance, weight and BMI, and social skills in children. Data were from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort, a prospective sample of approximately 21,000 nationally representative children entering kindergarten in 1998 and followed through 3rd grade. Food insecurity was measured by parent interview using a modification of the USDA module in which households were classified as food insecure if they reported > or =1 affirmative response in the past year. Households were grouped into 4 categories based on the temporal occurrence of food insecurity in kindergarten and 3rd grade. Children's academic performance, height, and weight were assessed directly. Children's social skills were reported by teachers. Analyses examined the effects of modified food insecurity on changes in child outcomes using lagged, dynamic, and difference (i.e., fixed-effects) models and controlling for child and household contextual variables. In lagged models, food insecurity was predictive of poor developmental trajectories in children before controlling for other variables. Food insecurity thus serves as an important marker for identifying children who fare worse in terms of subsequent development. In all models with controls, food insecurity was associated with outcomes, and associations differed by gender. This study provides the strongest empirical evidence to date that food insecurity is linked to specific developmental consequences for children, and that these consequences may be both nutritional and nonnutritional.read more
Citations
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Food insecurity and the risks of depression and anxiety in mothers and behavior problems in their preschool-aged children.
TL;DR: Mental health problems in mothers and children are more common when mothers are food insecure, a stressor that can potentially be addressed by social policy.
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The Food Insecurity–Obesity Paradox: A Review of the Literature and the Role Food Stamps May Play
TL;DR: This review proposes a conceptual framework linking the Food Stamp Program and other coping strategies to the food insecurity-obesity relationship, which has implications for Food Stamp program policy changes, welfare reform, and poverty prevention.
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TL;DR: These classroom activities, based on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, help explore the outcomes and subject matter in the PDHPE K-6 syllabus.
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Food security, poverty, and human development in the United States.
John T. Cook,Deborah A. Frank +1 more
TL;DR: This review summarizes the data on household and children's food insecurity and its relationship with children's health and development and with mothers' depressive symptoms and indicates an “invisible epidemic” of a serious condition.
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Household food insecurity: associations with at-risk infant and toddler development.
Ruth Rose-Jacobs,Maureen M. Black,Patrick H. Casey,John T. Cook,Diana B. Cutts,Mariana Chilton,Timothy Heeren,Suzette Levenson,Alan Meyers,Deborah A. Frank +9 more
TL;DR: Controlling for established correlates of child development, 4- to 36-month-old children from low-income households with food insecurity are more likely than those fromLow-income Households with food security to be at developmental risk.
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