Children from households experiencing food insecurity tend to have worse mental health outcomes compared to those in food-secure households. It is unclear, meanwhile, how severe food hardship affects mental health issues that have been recognized in early children. This study by Thielman et al. (2024) aimed to explore the link between household food insecurity and reported mental health conditions in Canadian children aged 5–11 years. The 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth provided the 16,216 Canadian children aged 5 to 11 whose data were evaluated for this study. The Household Food Security Survey Module was utilized to evaluate household food insecurity, and professional diagnoses of anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder were obtained from parents or caregivers. Of the children surveyed, 17.0% lived in households with some level of food insecurity (5.4% marginal, 8.0% moderate, and 3.6% severe). Further analysis revealed that 10.9% of these participants had at least one mental health diagnosis of concern. Children from families with marginal, moderate, and severe food insecurity had 1.39, 1.46, and 1.67 times greater chances of having a diagnosed mental health disorder, respectively, after controlling for sociodemographic variables. The authors conclude that there is a strong correlation between the frequency of documented mental health disorders in children aged 5 to 11 and household food poverty. This research contributes to the understanding that social and economic disparities, including food insecurity, adversely affect children's mental health.
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