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The Role of Parents’ Nativity in Shaping Differential Risks of Food Insecurity Among US First Graders

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Abstract

Objectives Food insecurity remains a problem in the US, especially for children in immigrant families. We developed a novel measure of parental nativity and incorporated school effects to advance knowledge from prior studies. Methods Using hierarchical logistic models and data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-2011 Kindergarten Cohort, we examined how parental nativity and race/ethnicity, and school characteristics influence household food insecurity among a nationally representative sample of US first-graders in 2012. Results After adjusting for potential confounders, children without any US-born parents had a higher likelihood of household food insecurity than children with two US-born parents or one foreign-born/one US-born parent. Attending a Title 1 school was associated with food insecurity independent of household socioeconomic status. Conclusions for Practice Results suggest that providers should take special care to screen for food insecurity among children with only immigrant parents and that Title 1 schools have a potentially important role to play in reducing food insecurity.

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Funding

This study was supported by National Institute of General Medical Sciences (Grant No. RL5GM118969).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Utah, 480 S 1530 E, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Ricardo Rubio & Sara E. Grineski

  2. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA

    Danielle X. Morales

  3. Department of Geography, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Timothy W. Collins

Authors
  1. Ricardo Rubio
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  2. Sara E. Grineski
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  3. Danielle X. Morales
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  4. Timothy W. Collins
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara E. Grineski.

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Ethical Statement

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. While the data do pertain to humans, we utilized a publicly available, de-identified, secondary data set. The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Human Research Protections recognizes that de-identified publicly available data does not constitute human subjects research as defined at 45 CFR 46.102. This means that it does not need a human subjects review through an Institutional Review Board.

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Rubio, R., Grineski, S.E., Morales, D.X. et al. The Role of Parents’ Nativity in Shaping Differential Risks of Food Insecurity Among US First Graders. Matern Child Health J 23, 910–918 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-018-02717-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-018-02717-w

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