title: Social Cohesion and Food Insecurity: Insights from the Geographic Research on Wellbeing (GROW) Study.
abstract: Objectives Food insecurity in the United States is a stubborn public health issue, affecting more than one in five households with children and disproportionately impacting racial and ethnic minority women and their children. Past research and policy has focused on household predictors of food insecurity, but neglected broader factors, such as perceived neighborhood social cohesion, that might protect those most vulnerable to food insecurity. Methods We use a racially and ethnically diverse data set from the Geographic Research on Wellbeing study (N = 2847) of women and their young children in California to investigate whether social cohesion influences food insecurity and whether it moderates the relationship between race/ethnicity and food insecurity. Results We find that lower levels of perceived residential neighborhood social cohesion associate with higher odds of food insecurity even after considering important household socioeconomic factors. In addition, our results suggest that social cohesion is most relevant for reducing the risk of food insecurity among racial and ethnic minority mothers. For example, the probability of food insecurity for immigrant Latina mothers is nearly 0.40 in neighborhoods where mothers perceive little to no cohesion and less than 0.10 in neighborhoods where mothers perceive high cohesion. Conclusions for Practice Higher levels of neighborhood perceived social cohesion are protective against food insecurity in households with children and especially so for racial and ethnic minority households who are at a heightened risk of food insecurity. Supporting programs that focus on building closer knit communities may be a key to reducing food insecurity overall and for reducing disparities in food insecurity by race and ethnicity.
authors.affiliation: Kinder Institute Urban Health Program and Department of Sociology, Rice University, 6100 Main St. MS-28, Houston, TX, 77005, USA. jtdenney@rice.edu.
authors.forename: Justin T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Denney
authors.affiliation: Kinder Institute Urban Health Program and Department of Sociology, Rice University, 6100 Main St. MS-28, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel Tolbert
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Kimbro
authors.affiliation: Center on Social Disparities in Health, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heck
authors.affiliation: Population Research Center and School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cubbin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D062305:Geographic Mapping; D006801:Humans; D009035:Mothers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011634:Public Health / Q000379:methods; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D058992:Social Participation / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Ethnicity; Food insecurity; Race; Social cohesion