Family Structure, Family Structure Transitions, and Childhood Food Insecurity

Daniel P. Miller, Boston University
Lenna Nepomnyaschy, Rutgers University

One in five households with children in the US is food insecure, which has grave implications for children’s well-being over the life course. Because access to resources is an important determinant of insecurity, children in single-mother families are particularly susceptible; however, research suggests that family structure transitions may also be important to child food security. In this paper, we investigate the effects of family structure and family structure transitions on childhood food insecurity using panel data. We first examine the effect of having any transition compared to being in different stable family structures, holding constant multiple covariates and food insecurity at baseline. We then examine the effect of transitions into and out of different family structures between survey waves compared to being in different stable family structures across all waves. We find evidence that both family structure and family structure transitions are significantly associated with child food insecurity.