This study explored the relationships between household
food insecurity and the cognitive performance
and social behavior in U.S. children entering kindergarten.
Earlier studies have found that hunger is associated
with poor school performance, such as more
school absences, tardiness, and increased probability
of repeating grades. There is also some evidence of
compromised social and emotional functioning among
adolescents in food-insecure households. The authors
focused on children entering kindergarten in order to
examine cumulative childhood development prior to
schooling. In addition, readiness for school is a
powerful predictor of later success and development
for children.
The authors used data from the 1998 Early Childhood
Longitudinal Study of Kindergartners (ECLS-K). The
ECLS-K is a nationally representative cluster sample
of approximately 20,000 children in both public and
private schools. The survey includes the 18 questions
used to construct the Federal measure of household
food security. The authors examined the links between
household food insecurity, teacher- and parent-reported
social skills, teacher-reported cognitive ability, and an
independent direct assessment of children’s cognitive
abilities in math, reading, and general knowledge.
These measures constitute an unusually extensive evaluation
of children’s cognitive and social skills.
Additionally, the authors investigated the associations
between household food insecurity and children’s
height and weight when they entered kindergarten.
The authors used factor analysis to reduce the cognitive
and social data to five summary measures, and
multiple linear regression analysis to examine the
prediction of these measures by a large number of
potential independent variables, including sociodemographic
characteristics, school and home environment
characteristics, parental and teacher characteristics,
day care and preschool experience, and household and
child participation in Federal assistance programs.
The study results show that household-level food insecurity
is not a significant independent predictor of
cognitive performance, whether assessed by teachers
or by an independent observer. However, food insecurity
is significantly and negatively related to parents’
rating of their children’s emotional state and social
interaction skills and to teachers’ rating of children’s
social skills. Food insecurity is not a significant independent
predictor of short stature, overweight, or
underweight among kindergarten children. Physical
activity is a significant predicator of overweight status
among children. The amount of time spent watching
TV on weekends is positively associated with being
overweight, while the teacher-rated activity level
during free play is negatively associated with being
overweight.
