Thirteenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Food insecurity (FI) and poor mental health (MH) are pressing public health concerns that share a critical connection with dietary behaviors and nutrition outcomes. There is evidence that FI and poor MH are causally linked but different studies have found mixed results. Our study examines the bidirectional relationship between the two to determine whether household FI predicts parent’s poor MH, and vice versa, while estimating the underlying pathways. Longitudinal data from the Family Matters study of 1,307 families from six racial/ethnic groups in Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA was collected in 2017-2018 (baseline) and 2019-2020 (follow-up). FI was determined by the USDA 6-item questionnaire and MH was assessed using the Kessler-6 psychological distress scale. Demographic and socio-economic variables, in addition to potential mediator variables, were controlled for in the analyses. Multivariate linear and logistic regression models were used. Results: At baseline, 28.4% of households in our sample were FI and 8.4% of the parents were psychologically distressed. FI at baseline was significantly associated with poor mental health at follow-up (p< 0.01), while the reverse (poor MH at baseline and FI at follow-up) was not statistically significant. While household FI and parent’s poor MH tend to be associated with one another, this study suggests that the likely direction of causation is from FI to poor MH. It, therefore, calls for policies and interventions that address FI since benefits may spill over into improved mental health outcomes: programs providing food assistance may also introduce participants to mental health resources.