Review of Coping Strategies to Prevent and Mitigate Food Insecurity in Households with Children

Food insecurity occurs when household members experience a change in their diets due to limited resources. Compared with all households, food insecurity is more prevalent among those with children in the United States. In approximately half of those households, children did not directly experience food insecurity, indicating that coping strategies, or actions to manage food insecurity, may help prevent this situation by limiting changes to the quality and quantity of the diet. The aim of this scoping review is to summarize and examine documented coping strategies used by low-income households with children in the United States and provide insights for interventions that could improve food security. PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and PsycINFO were searched up to January 2026. Two independent reviewers screened articles in Covidence through title/abstract and full-text stages using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Conflicts were reconciled through discussion to reach a consensus. Results and key themes of each study were extracted and synthesized narratively regarding coping strategies to manage food security. Twenty-five studies were identified through the screening process, and 5 key themes were identified: food acquisition, food management, financial coping, reliance on support from family members or friends, and coping strategies implemented by children. Most studies focused on strategies used by mothers and parents, whereas others examined strategies used by the entire household or by children. The findings suggest that multiple members of food-insecure households with children use coping strategies, providing insights for future interventions to improve food security. The protocol for this review is registered with Open Science Framework, and its registration DOI is 10.17605/OSF.IO/H7TCF.