Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology & Gerontology

First Advisor

Naida Silverthorn

Abstract

Food insufficiency is a detrimental crisis that impacts families facing financial hardships across the United States (Nam et al., 2015). Research finds that economic difficulties and child maladaptive development are positively associated because parental stress is exacerbated by financial hardships affecting parental sensitivity to their children (Hill et al., 2013; Simons et al., 2016). The current study uses the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) data from the 2021-2022 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). It builds on these findings, investigating the relationship between food insufficiency and parental aggravation on child behavioral outcomes across different family structures in the COVID-19 post-pandemic economic era (Monte et al., 2022; Torales et al., 2020). The current study examined the relationship between food insufficiency and parental aggravation, examining how this relationship influences child behavior. Results demonstrated that food insufficiency is linked to parental aggravation. More children were reported to have adverse developmental outcomes (i.e., behavioral problems, low flourishing, anxiety, bullying, victimization, and depression) in homes reporting parental aggravation. Overall, the moderating effect of family structure on the relationship between food insufficiency and parental aggravation showed that nontraditional and grandparent-led households were affected the most. However, family structures had a minimal practical effect (i.e., small effect size) on this relationship. Understanding these relationships provides empirical support for effective intervention programs to mitigate the ramifications of food insufficiency.

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