In conjunction with multivariate models, the data set's depth and breadth permit the most comprehensive assessment to date of the independent effect of food insecurity/hunger on critical child outcomes. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of results will identify factors that make some children more vulnerable than others to food insecurity/hunger. The project will extend previous work by broadening the child outcomes considered, utilizing direct child assessment measures, controlling for a greater range of potential confounding variables, including maternal, community, and child factors, and examining changes in principal study outcomes over a two-year long follow-up period. In addition, the work will pay particular attention to the relationship between food assistance programs and food insecurity/hunger. In-depth analysis of the relationship between hunger (its presence, duration, and recurrence) and children's nutritional intake patterns, anthropometry, physical and emotional health, and learning, will be used to devise a screening measure for food insecurity/hunger that can identify high risk children and families for targeted interventions. A cooperative research agreement was awarded to the University of Massachusetts Medical School in fiscal 1999 at a cost of $250,000. The research is expected to be completed by September 2001.