Risk and protective factors for adult and child hunger among low-income housed and homeless female-headed families.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to identify factors associated with adult or child hunger.


METHODS
Low-income housed and homeless mothers were interviewed about socioeconomic, psychosocial, health, and food sufficiency information. Multinomial logistic regression produced models predicting adult or child hunger.


RESULTS
Predictors of adult hunger included mothers' childhood sexual molestation and current parenting difficulties, or "hassles." Risk factors for child hunger included mothers' childhood sexual molestation, housing subsidies, brief local residence, having more or older children, and substandard housing.


CONCLUSIONS
This study found that the odds of hunger, although affected by resource constraints in low-income female-headed families, were also worsened by mothers' poor physical and mental health. Eliminating hunger thus may require broader interventions than food programs.
Wehler
Cheryl
C
University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, 01655, USA.
Weinreb
Linda F
LF
Huntington
Nicholas
N
Scott
Richard
R
Hosmer
David
D
Fletcher
Kenneth
K
Goldberg
Robert
R
Gundersen
Craig
C
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000191:economics; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics; D006304:Health Status; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons; D006798:Housing / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D016487:Parenting; D011203:Poverty; D015995:Prevalence; D011632:Public Assistance; D012307:Risk Factors