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Using National Population Health Survey data and the stress process model, this study investigates the relationship between food insufficiency and the risk of depression among Canadian adults. The study presents three principal findings. First, after controlling for conventional socioeconomic and socio-demographic variables, food insufficiency increases the risk of depression and actually predicts this risk better than measures of low income, main source of income, and education. Second, the negative effect of food insufficiency is not attributable to social resources disparities, even though these resources significantly reduce the size of the effect. Third, the effects of food insufficiency on depression are generally stronger for women than for men, but the results also indicate that single fathers from food insufficient households face more depression than other groups, including single mothers.

Th is study examines the ways in which enrollment in the food stamp program affects the mental health status of enrollees. The results find that the negative mental health effects associated with food insufficiency are higher among food stamp participants than nonparticipants. It is estimated that 35.1 million people lived in food-insecure households (Nord, Andrews, and Carlson, 2006) in 2005. Th is means that at some point in the previous year, due to scarce household resources, these families were unable to acquire enough food or were uncertain of having enough food to meet their basic needs. Food insuffi ciency is defined as not having enough to eat periodically over the previous 12 months and is a more severe level of food insecurity. This study examines food insufficiency, rather than food insecurity, due to its relation to food expenditures, and nutritional intake (Basiotis, 1992; Cristofar and Basiotis, 1992). ; Includes bibliographical references

Objectives. This study examines whether the mental health consequences associated with food insufficiency vary by food stamp participation status and/or the value of the food stamp benefit received.Methods. We use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics along with fixed‐effect methods that control for unobserved heterogeneity to test our hypotheses.Results. We find that, conditional on the food stamp benefit amount, the emotional distress associated with food insufficiency is higher among food stamp participants. Moreover, we find evidence of a dosage effect such that food‐insufficient individuals who receive higher amounts of food stamp benefits suffer greater emotional distress than food‐insufficient individuals who receive lower levels of food stamp benefits. However, the negative mental health effects of food insufficiency and food stamp participation are driven primarily by periods of transition onto the Food Stamp Program and into food insufficiency.Conclusions. The negative mental health aspects of participating in the Food Stamp Program seem to outweigh the positive mental health aspects, at least during the period of application and initial receipt, suggesting that programmatic reform is needed to improve overall well‐being among new participants.

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic initially caused worldwide concerns about food insecurity. Tweets analyzed in real‐time may help food assistance providers target food supplies to where they are most urgently needed. In this exploratory study, we use natural language processing to extract sentiments and emotions expressed in food security‐related tweets early in the pandemic in U.S. states. The emotion joy dominated in these tweets nationally, but only anger, disgust, and fear were also statistically correlated with contemporaneous food insufficiency rates reported in the Household Pulse Survey; more nuanced and statistically stronger correlations are detected within states, including a negative correlation with joy.

AbstractThe prevalence of food insufficiency among seniors in any given year is well‐documented, but the prevalence of this hardship over a longer time period in later life is unknown. Using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study, I find that about 8% of seniors report food insufficiency over a 2‐year recall window, while 22% experience it at some point over the two decades of their 60s and 70s. Food insufficiency is not concentrated among a small group of persistently disadvantaged elderly, but is instead a surprisingly common feature of the later life course.

This paper examined the determinants of household food insufficiency coping strate-gies based on secondary data collected from 12,480 randomly selected households in Malawi. In response to food insufficiency, households employed the following coping strategies: relying on less preferred food options, reducing the proportion of meals, reducing the number of meals per day, restricting adult consumption for small children to eat, and borrowing food from family or friends. To assess the determinants of food insufficiency coping strategies, a multivariate probit model was employed. Education level, household size, livestock ownership and place of residence were some of the important factors that affected the choice of the coping strategies. The paper recom-mends policies that aim at strengthening the education system of the rural communities to equip them with skills they can use diversify their livelihood sources.

OBJECTIVES: To examine regional differences in food insufficiency among households with children between Deep South states and the rest of the United States during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey is a massive, online, and rapid interagency effort to provide data on the social consequences of COVID-19. Here, data on food insufficiency among households with children, reported by household respondents (N = 232,016), were taken from phases 3.1 (4/15–7/5/2021) and 3.2 (7/21–10/11/2021). The main predictor was living in a Deep South state (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina). Logistic regression models were run separately for each phase, adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, household head educational attainment, number of children in the household, and household income-to-poverty ratio. Differences in these variables between the regions were also assessed. Survey weights included with Pulse were used in all analyses. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of food insufficiency among households with children was 12.2% in phase 3.1, with a higher prevalence in Deep South states (16.4%) compared to non-Deep South states (11.8%; p < .0001). Food insufficiency prevalence decreased in phase 3.2 to 10.3% for all households, but regional differences remained (Deep South = 13.9%, non-Deep South = 9.9%). Crude analysis showed that households with children in Deep South states had 46% and 63% higher odds of food insufficiency than non-Deep South states in phases 3.1 and 3.2, respectively. Factors associated with food insufficiency, including lower income and lower educational status, were more common in the Deep South, but after adjusting for these and other covariates, the odds of food insufficiency in Deep South states were still significantly greater (phase 3.1: OR = 1.19, 95%CI = 1.04–1.37; phase 3.2: OR = 1.30, 95%CI = 1.13–1.51). CONCLUSIONS: Regional inequities in food insufficiency among households with children ...

What is the association between food insufficiency and body weight? Although common sense would suggest a negative association, research often finds the opposite. The authors contrast commodity theories of material privation with stress theories, proposing that the seemingly counterintuitive association results from the suppressing influence of economic hardship. Because it is a chronic stressor, economic hardship may be associated with increased body weight. Data from the Welfare, Children, and Families study of 2,402 disadvantaged women in Chicago, Boston, and San Antonio show that people who experience economic hardship weigh more; and that the true negative association between body weight and food insufficiency—especially going hungry because one cannot afford food—is revealed only after adjustment for economic hardship.

We investigate the association of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) program with food insufficiency and related anxieties among families with incomes below $35000. Analyzing the US Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey data, our xtprobit specification and estimation reveals the disparate impact of the CTC across demographic and racial divides, a departure from previous work. Subgroup analyses reveal that the final two CTC installments disproportionately benefited Hispanic households and those earning under $25000/year while producing no significant decrease in food insufficiency for black households or those earning $25000–$35000/year. The study indicates that the expanded CTC's reduction of low-income households' food insufficiency persisted across the program's duration. Thus, the expansion achieved its intended purpose by helping to buffer low-income families against the fallout of the disrupted pandemic economy—an important result to keep in mind as policy makers continue to consider modifications to the CTC that improve efficacy and equity. JEL Codes: A12, A13, A14