Young Children's Development and Behavior: Associations with Timing of Household Food Insecurity in a Racially and...

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Public Health
• Socioeconomic Factors

Background:

• Household food insecurity (HFI) is a significant socioeconomic stressor affecting early childhood.
• The timing and persistence of HFI may have differential impacts on child behavioral and developmental health.
• Understanding these impacts is crucial, especially for racially or ethnically minoritized populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the longitudinal impact of household food insecurity (HFI) on behavioral and developmental health in early childhood.
• To examine how the timing and persistence of HFI influence problem behaviors (PBs) and developmental delays (DD).
• To investigate potential differences in HFI's impact among racially or ethnically minoritized children.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study of 760 families from the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Study until child age 3.
• Data collected on HFI, PBs, DD, and sociodemographics via caregiver interviews.
• Analysis of Covariances and multiple regressions used to examine HFI's impact and timing effects.

Main Results:

• Persistent HFI was associated with greater problem behaviors compared to transient HFI.
• Late HFI was associated with more developmental delays than persistent HFI.
• HFI increased problem behaviors across all racial/ethnic groups; developmental delays were higher in non-Latino/a/e/x White families compared to Black and Latino/a/e/x families.

Conclusions:

• The persistence and timing of HFI differentially impact child problem behaviors and developmental delays.
• HFI's association with developmental delays varied across racial and ethnic groups.
• No cumulative risk effect of HFI was observed in racially or ethnically minoritized children when controlling for socioeconomic risk.