Childhood food involvement: protection against food insecurity in young adulthood

While it is already widely believed that food insecurity during young adulthood can influence academic performance, and physical and mental health, Wolfson et al. (2020) are interested in the largely unknown relationship between parental and behavioral factors during childhood and the risk of food insecurity during young adulthood. The parental and behavioral factors examined in this study included parental nutritional knowledge, childhood food preparation, and the role played in food shopping. There was a lower likelihood of being food-insecure during young adulthood if the child’s parents had moderate to high nutritional knowledge, compared with those with parents possessing low nutritional knowledge. Additionally, more time spent preparing food during childhood was linked with less risk of being food-insecure during young adulthood, relative to those who had never prepared food. But being involved in shopping for food at childhood did not predict food insecurity in young adulthood. In summary, spending some time as a child preparing food and having parents with good nutritional knowledge can offer protection against food insecurity during young adulthood. [NPID: low-income, food insecurity, academic performance, food prep]

Year: 2020

Reference: Wolfson, J. A., Insolera, N., & Cohen, A. J. (2020). Childhood Food Involvement: Protection Against Food Insecurity in Young Adulthood. American journal of preventive medicine, 58(1), 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2019.09.001