Presenting author: Cassandra Nikolaus
Co-authors: Megan Schierer, and Sharon M. Nickols-Richardson
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
Food insecurity (FI), defined as the lack of access to culturally appropriate and adequate food to meet an individual’s (or family’s) needs, is often considered an international concern, but it continues to persist in developed countries. Diet quality and subsequent health of millions of American adults and children are threatened by household FI. Previous work has consistently established a negative relationship between household income and risk of FI. However, a small portion of households below the poverty line are able to maintain food security despite limited incomes. This has inspired researchers to investigate determinants, beyond income, that predict lower odds of household FI. The aim of this study was to investigate grit (a measure of two non-cognitive traits: perseverance and determination) as a predictor of FI risk among a cross-sectional sample of parents. An online questionnaire was designed to assess: 1) household FI using the 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module; 2) perseverance and determination using the validated 8-item Grit-S questionnaire; and 3) several previously established predictors of FI (race, ethnicity, household size, education, marital status, health insurance, and income). This questionnaire was distributed to an online panel of U.S. consumers (Qualtrics LLC.). To be eligible, parents needed to have at least one child under the age of 18 years in the household and an overall household income below the 2015 median household income ($52,250 U.S. dollars per year). All statistical analyses were conducted using STATA/MP 14.1 (StataCorp LP); significance was set to α=0.05. Within the sample of n=252 parents, 61.1% reported household FI. Mean (±SD) Grit-S was 3.35 (±0.62), on a scale of 1 (low grit) to 5 (high grit). Logistic regression was used to predict household FI from parent’s Grit-S score and established covariates. Overall, the model had a R2=0.08, and parent’s Grit-S score significantly decreased the odds of household FI (β= -1.12; 95% CI= -2.02, -0.23; P= 0.01); no other variables were significantly associated with FI. These results suggest that parent’s perseverance and determination (as measured by Grit-S) may be a valuable determinant of household FI. Future research should investigate whether these results are consistent when repeated in a larger and more diverse sample.