Research Opportunities Concerning the Causes and Consequences of Child Food Insecurity and Hunger Workshop Summary (2013) / Chapter Skim
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3 Individual and Household Determinants of Child Food Insecurity and Hunger
3 Individual and Household Determinants of Child Food Insecurity and Hunger
Pages 11-26
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From page 11... ...
, followed by Sanders Korenman, an economist and professor at the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, City University of New York. STATEMENT OF CRAIG GUNDERSEN1 Gundersen began by providing a brief description of the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM)
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From page 12... ...
; • no child support (Garasky and Stewart, 2007) ; 2Gundersen indicated that controlling for other factors -- households that are more likely to be food insecure include those with lower incomes; those headed by a single parent, a nonHispanic black, a Hispanic, or someone with less education; those with more children; and those who do not own their home.
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From page 13... ...
. He noted that in studies using panel datasets, dynamic factors have been associated with being at higher risk of food insecurity, including negative income shocks, lack of assets, changes in household composition, and becoming unemployed (Gundersen and Gruber, 2001; Leete and Bania, 2010; Ribar and Hamrick, 2003)
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How to Interpret Determinants Gundersen stated that more information is needed about the relative magnitudes of food insecurity determinants in order to more effectively target scarce resources. Gundersen went on to say that the food insecurity literature (like that on poverty)
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Gundersen suggested employing econometric methods to more adequately determine the causal direction of food insecurity and its correlates. Gundersen asked why data on food expenditures are often inconsistent with responses to the food insecurity questions.
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Gundersen concluded by saying that there is a need for more data with specifics about food spending and food access. He cited the National Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey, sponsored by ERS and fielded by Mathematica Policy Research in 2012, as a promising new survey and database for analysis.4 STATEMENT OF ALISHA COLEMAN-JENSEN Coleman-Jensen stated that the main reason to understand determinants of children's food insecurity data and the mechanisms by which they operate is to improve the design and targeting of programs and policies meant to improve food security.
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From page 17... ...
However, she noted, where to focus the investment remains an open question, pointing out that some recent UKCPR research focuses on the severe conditions of food insecurity among children with very low food security. Very low food security among children is difficult to study because it is relatively rare (as noted above, 1 percent of households with children)
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From page 18... ...
She pointed to new research opportunities in this area. FNS has funded data collection using the HFSSM 10-item adult food security questions in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
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INDIVIDUAL AND HOUSEHOLD DETERMINANTS 19 Households with food insecurity among children None in labor Disabled, none force for reasons in labor force, other than disability, 6.5% 6.4% Unemployed looking for work, none employed, 12.2% One or more employed Part-time, no full-time, full-time, 59.6% 15.4% Prevalence and severity of food insecurity among children Very low food security Low food security All households with children 1 or more employed full-time Part-time, no full-time Unemployed looking for work, none employed Disabled, none in labor force None in labor force for reasons other than disability 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Percent of households FIGURE 3-1 Prevalence and distribution of food insecurity among children, by employment and labor force status of adults in the household, 2010–2011 aver age from the Household Food Security Survey Module of the Current Population Survey (CPS-HFSSM)
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From page 20... ...
She asked what level of severity should be targeted -- the tip of the iceberg or the whole iceberg? 6 The "tip of the iceberg" might represent households with food insecurity among children or, at the very tip, very low food security among children.
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From page 21... ...
STATEMENT OF SANDERS KORENMAN The theme of Korenman's remarks was that measurement matters, and measurement issues affect key variables that are central to a study about the determinants of food insecurity. He said the most important constructs are poverty, food insecurity, and program participation, especially participation in SNAP, and he praised research of Craig Gundersen, Mark Nord, David Ribar, and others on the topic.
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From page 22... ...
on the same topic that showed that even at essentially zero food expenditures, household food insecurity is still only at about 20 percent. Korenman stated that the data may be masking genuine distress, and it may mean that the food insecurity and insufficiency measures will have difficulty registering increases in well-being from policy innovations and economic improvement.
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From page 23... ...
that displays three poverty measures from 1960–2010, he noted that the official income poverty measure is relatively flat, showing little change after the early 1970s. The consumption poverty measure, available since 1984, shows much greater reductions in the poverty rate and thus implies a different story about the success of policy and the economy in reducing poverty over the past 30 years.7 He said Kaushal et al.
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From page 24... ...
. Their classification and regression trees method showed that combinations of factors mattered in complex ways: for example, the variables of having some savings, food expenditures, whether solely reliant on food stamps for food expenditures, and whether there was some extra income for food worked well together.
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From page 25... ...
He went on to say there is a debate in the literature about how much people can be taught financial management skills, with some evidence that instruction does not help much and that people seem to have those skills or not. A participant referred to one of Gundersen's slides, which stated having an older child was an important factor in the level of food security.
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From page 26... ...
He suggested that if the preponderance of evidence shows the most meaningful factors affecting food insecurity are unemployment and poverty, more collective efforts should address income and poverty.
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