Food Insecurity in Toddlerhood and School Readiness: Mediating Pathways Through Parental Well-Being and Behaviors

Associations between daily food insecurity and parent and child well-being.

“…They report that when parent variables like stress and warmth were included in regression models, the effects of food insecurity on child behavior were no longer significant. Another study (Markowitz et al, 2021) used a sample of younger children and found that parent depression mediated between 35% and 51% of the effect of food insecurity on child social–emotional development. Although that study used traditional mediation, it did document larger mediation effects of parent depression on social–emotional outcomes than we find here.…”

“…Separately, parental stress, anxiety, and depression predict reduced parental warmth and support, and increased harsh parenting—all practices that are strongly linked to negative social–emotional outcomes among children (Beck, 1995; Gershoff, 2002; Goodman et al, 2011; Landry et al, 2006; Tamis-LeMonda et al, 2009). Further, longitudinal research using mediation analyses provides more complete support for this theory, documenting that food insecurity’s effect on parents may be responsible for part of its effect on children’s social–emotional development (Gee & Asim, 2019; Markowitz et al, 2021; Slack & Yoo, 2005; Zaslow et al, 2009). For example, research suggests that food insecurity in toddlerhood works through maternal depressive symptoms and parenting stress to predict worse social–emotional outcomes at school entry (Markowitz et al, 2021).…”

“…Further, the family stress model hypothesizes that food insecurity affects child outcomes through parent well-being and behavior, and mediation analyses using longitudinal data support that hypothesized pathway (e.g., Markowitz et al, 2021;Slack & Yoo, 2005). Due to the transactional relationship between parenting and child behavior, however, it is also possible that food insecurity first changes child behavior.…”

“…By examining how daily changes in food insecurity relate to daily changes in parent and child well-being within a family, this study also reduces methodological issues plaguing past food insecurity research that seeks to identify its mechanisms. Previous work examining the relationship between food insecurity and parent and child well-being suggests that food insecurity may work through parents’ well-being, specifically maternal depression (Markowitz et al, 2021; Slack & Yoo, 2005; Zaslow et al, 2009), parenting stress (Huang et al, 2010; Markowitz et al, 2021; Slack & Yoo, 2005; Zaslow et al, 2009), parenting practices (Slack & Yoo, 2005; Zaslow et al, 2009), and even parenting aggravation (Gee & Asim, 2019). These studies, however, compare people and families with food insecurity to those without, rely on food insecurity and well-being measures asking about the past 12 months, and use observations a year or longer between data points.…”

“…Further, longitudinal research using mediation analyses provides more complete support for this theory, documenting that food insecurity's effect on parents may be responsible for part of its effect on children's social-emotional development (Gee & Asim, 2019;Markowitz et al, 2021;Slack & Yoo, 2005;Zaslow et al, 2009). For example, research suggests that food insecurity in toddlerhood works through maternal depressive symptoms and parenting stress to predict worse socialemotional outcomes at school entry (Markowitz et al, 2021).…”