Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Freshmen at a University in Appalachia Experience a Higher Rate of Campus than Family Food Insecurity

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Community Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Food insecurity means having limited or uncertain access, in socially acceptable ways, to an adequate and safe food supply. Ample evidence has identified college students as vulnerable to this problem, but little research has focused on freshmen. This cross-sectional study examined family and campus food insecurity among freshmen at a university in Appalachia. An online questionnaire contained sociodemographic items and scales that measured food security status, academic progress, coping strategies for accessing food, and social support. T-tests and Chi square analyses compared food insecure and food secure students. Statistical significance was p < .05. Participants were 456 freshmen, 118 males (26%) and 331 females (73%). Family and campus food insecurity were experienced by 32 (7.1%) and 98 (21.5%) of the freshmen, respectively, and 42.5% of those who experienced campus food insecurity believed their food access had worsened since starting college. Family and campus coping strategies, respectively, included stretching food (72.9 vs. 18.4%) and purchasing cheap, processed food (68.8 vs. 16.3%). Food secure students scored significantly higher on self-rated measures of academic progress (p < .01), and greater proportions of food secure students (60.7 vs. 43.9%, p < .01) perceived their eating habits since starting college as “healthy/very healthy,” and perceived their health status as “good/excellent” (86.0 vs. 71.4%, p < .01). Students requested assistance with job opportunities (19.4%), affordable meal plans (18.4%), money management (13.3%), and eating healthy (11.2%). Findings suggest that college student food insecurity begins during the freshmen year, and that there is a need for campus and community-based interventions to increase food access among these freshmen and their families.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Coleman-Jensen, A., Rabbit, M. P., Gregory, C. A., & Singh, A. (2017). Household food security in the United States in 2016. United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-security-in-the-united-states/ Accessed 16 Feb 2018.

  2. United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. Food security in the U.S. Measurement. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/measurement.aspx. Accessed 16 Feb 2018.

  3. Morrissey, T. W., Oellerich, D., Meade, E., Simms, J., & Stock, A. (2016). Neighborhood poverty and children’s food insecurity. Children and Youth Services Review, 66, 85–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Ma, X., Liese, A. B., Hibbert, J., Bell, B. A., Wilcox, S., & Sharpe, P. A. (2017). The association between food security and store-specific and overall food shopping behaviors. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 117(12), 1931–1940.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Chaudry, A., & Wimer, C. (2016). Poverty is not just an indicator: The relationship between income, poverty, and child well-being. Academic Pediatrics, 16(3), S23–S29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Armour, B. S., Pitts, M., & Lee, C. W. (2008). Cigarette smoking and food insecurity among low-income families in the United States, 2001. American Journal of Health Promotion, 22(6), 386–392.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Brucker, D. L. (2016). Food security among young adults with disabilities in the United States: Findings from the National Health Interview Survey. Disability and Health Journal, 9(2), 298–305.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Chung, E. K., Siegel, B. S., Garg, A., et al. (2016). Screening for social determinants of health among children and families living in poverty: A guide for clinicians. Current Problems in Pediatric Adolescent Health Care, 46(5), 135–153.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Burke, M. P., Martini, L. H., Cayir, E., Hartline-Grafton, H. L., & Meade, R. L. (2016). Severity of household food insecurity is positively associated with mental disorders among children and adolescents in the United States. Journal of Nutrition, 146(10), 2019–2026.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. King, C. (2018). Food insecurity and child behavior problems in fragile families. Economics and Human Biology, 28, 14–22.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Wong, J. C., Scott, T., Wilde, P., Li, Y.-G., Tucker, K. L., & Gao, X. (2016). Food Insecurity is associated with subsequent cognitive decline in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study. Journal of Nutrition, 146(9), 1740–1745.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Chilton, M., & Booth, S. (2007). Hunger of the body and hunger of the mind. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 39(3), 116–125.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Dhurandhar, E. J. (2016). The food-insecurity obesity paradox: A resource scarcity hypothesis. Physiology and Behavior, 162, 88–92.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Liping, P., Sherry, B., Njai, R., & lanck, H. (2012). Food insecurity is associated with obesity among U.S. adults in 12 states. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 112(9), 1403–1409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Parker, E. D., Widome, R., Nettleton, J. A., & Pereira, M. A. (2010). Food security and metabolic syndrome in U.S. adults and adolescents: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2006. Annals of Epidemiology, 20(5), 364–370.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Dharmasena, S., Bessler, D. A., & Capps, O. (2016). Food environment in the United States as a complex economic system. Food Policy, 61, 163–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Gorman, K. S., McCurdy, K., Kisler, T., & Metallinos-Katsaras, E. (2017). Maternal strategies to access food differ by food security status. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 117(1), 48–57.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Pinard, C., Smith, T. M., Calloway, E. E., Fricke, P. E., Bertmann, F. M., & Yaroch, A. L. (2016). Auxiliary measures to assess factors related to food insecurity: Preliminary testing and baseline characteristics of newly designed hunger-coping scales. Preventive Medicine Reports, 4, 289–295.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Knight, C. K., Probst, J. C., Liese, A. D., Sercy, E., & Jones, S. J. (2016). Household food insecurity and medication “scrimping” among US adults with diabetes. Preventive Medicine, 83, 41–45.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Bruening, M., Argo, K., Payne-Sturges, D., & Laska, M. N. (2017). The struggle is real: A systematic review of food insecurity on postsecondary campuses. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 117(11), 1767–1791.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Gaines, A., Knol, L. L., Robb, C. A., & Sickler, S. M. (2014). Examining the role of financial factors, resources and skills in predicting food security status among college students. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 38, 374–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Patton-Lopez, M. M., Lopez-Cevallos, D. F., Cancel-Tirado, D. I., & Vazquez, L. (2014). Prevalence and correlates of food insecurity among students attending a midsize rural university in Oregon. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 46(3), 209–214.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Maroto, M., Snelling, A., & Linck, H. (2015). Food insecurity among community college students: Prevalence and association with grade point average. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 39, 515–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Lindsley, K., & King, C. (2014). Food insecurity of campus-residing Alaskan college students. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 114(9), A94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Chaparro, M. P., Zaghloul, S. S., Holck, P., & Dobbs, J. (2009). Food insecurity prevalence among college students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Public Health Nutrition, 12(11), 2097–2103.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Wall-Bassett, E. (2017). The association of food insecurity and stress among college students in rural North Carolina. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 49(7), S75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Bruening, M., Brennhofer, S., van Woerden, I., Todd, M., & Laska, M. (2016). Factors related to the high rates of food insecurity among diverse, urban college freshmen. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 116(9), 1450–1457.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. North Carolina Report (2016) Talk poverty. https://talkpoverty.org/state-year-report/north-carolina-2016-report/. Accessed 16 Feb 2018.

  29. Hunger in NC—Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. https://www.foodshuttle.org/hunger-in-nc/. Accessed 16 Feb 2018.

  30. Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., & Christian, L. M. (2009). Internet, phone, mail, and mixed-mode surveys: The tailored design method (3rd edn.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

    Google Scholar 

  31. Darko, J., Eggett, D. L., & Richards, R. (2013). Shopping behaviors of low-income families during a 1-month period of time. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 45(1), 20–29.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Rosa, G. L., Ortolano, S. E., & Dickin, K. L. (2018). Remembering food insecurity: Low-income parents’ perspectives on childhood experiences and implications for measurement. Appetite, 121, 1–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Roy, R., Kelly, B., Rangan, A., & Allman-Farinelli, M. (2015). Online extra practice implications food environment intervention to improve the dietary behavior of young adults in tertiary education settings: A systematic literature review. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 115(10), 1647–1681.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Gonzales, R., Laurent, J. S., & Johnson, R. K. (2017). Relationship between meal plan, dietary intake, body mass index, and appetitive responsiveness in college students. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 31(3), 320–326.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Lohse, B., Belue, R., Smith, S., Wampoldt, P., & Cunningham-Sabo, L. (2015). About eating: An online program with evidence of increased food resource management skills for low-income women. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 47(3), 265–272.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the freshmen who completed the questionnaire.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition and Health Care Management, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, 28608, USA

    Laura H. McArthur, Elaine Wartinger & Jordan Miller

  2. Department of Health and Exercise Science, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, 28608, USA

    Kimberly S. Fasczewski

Authors
  1. Laura H. McArthur
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kimberly S. Fasczewski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Elaine Wartinger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jordan Miller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kimberly S. Fasczewski.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

This research was not funded, and approval was obtained from the Office of Research Protections at the university prior to data collection.

Informed Consent

An informed consent letter was included in the questionnaire prior to the first item. Students who did not wish to participate after reading this letter could exit the questionnaire by clicking on an “exit” button.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

McArthur, L.H., Fasczewski, K.S., Wartinger, E. et al. Freshmen at a University in Appalachia Experience a Higher Rate of Campus than Family Food Insecurity. J Community Health 43, 969–976 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-018-0513-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-018-0513-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation