Dr. Jennifer Garner, OSU, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs
Title: Household Structure, Food Security, and Diet Quality: Revisiting Old Assumptions
Abstract: Since the financial crash of 2008, and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and related recession, an increased number of U.S. families are living in more consolidated households to maximize resources. At the same time, the opioid crisis has precipitated a greater prevalence of ‘grand-families’, a household structure in which grandparents serve as primary caregivers for one or more of their grandchildren. To reduce foster care demand, federal legislation has endeavored to facilitate and support such kinship care. Potentially archaic notions persistent about the superiority of the ‘nuclear’ family structure. Given the contemporary policy context and literature suggesting some benefits of the ‘grand-family’ arrangement, as well as heightened concerns regarding food insecurity among older adults and households with children, revisiting old risk/benefit assumptions about household structure is warranted. The present study leveraged a nationally-representative dataset, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), to examine differences in household-level food security status by household structure. Given the lack of full household roster data in this and many other national datasets, we employ a novel algorithm to categorize households into structural profiles, including two-‘parent’ households, single-‘parent’ households, grand-families, and multigenerational households. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the effect of household structure on food security level. Our analyses disaggregate marginal security from full food security for more nuanced insights. We also explore the relationship between an older adults’ household role, household food security status, and diet quality, with implications for policies and programs targeting the nutritional wellbeing of the older adult population.
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