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Academic Cost of Food Insecurity

Janet Raloff

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051210/food.asp

'Tis the season for holiday feasts. Yet not all families will have access

to the party spreads portrayed on current magazine covers. Indeed, some 16

percent of U.S. households that include children lack the funds to

reliably keep ample, much less nutritious, food on the dinner table. Grade

school children coming from such households don't fare as well

academically and exhibit more behavioral problems than do children from

homes able to afford good and plentiful food, a new study finds.

Previous research had shown these relationships, but the new study was of

a nationally representative sample of children, and it's the first

research on academics and behavior to look at effects of nutrition over

more than a snapshot of time. As such, says nutritional epidemiologist

A. Frongillo of Cornell University, his team's study is " the

strongest single piece of evidence " that children getting poor nutrition

face setbacks in many aspects of their lives.

Classroom setbacks

The Department of Education has since 1998 been surveying about 21,000

children in more than 1,500 elementary schools. Researchers administered

tests of academic skills in these children in the spring of kindergarten

and again in the spring of third grade. Parents of the children were also

given a survey that included 18 questions about food availability in the

home, such as: " Did your child sometimes go hungry over the past year

because you couldn't afford enough food? " " Did your household have to rely

on a few low-cost foods to make sure there was enough to eat? " and " Do you

ever cut the size of meal portions because there isn't enough food? "

Frongillo's team used data from the more than 11,000 youngsters and their

families for which academic evaluations and full surveys were available in

both kindergarten and third-grade. Parents of 17 percent of the children

had answered yes to at least one question about limited food availability,

more than 8 percent answered yes to at least three questions.

The researchers then stratified the children and their families into four

groups, according to what the scientists call " food-security " status:

children whose access to food had always been secure, those for whom it

had always been tenuous, those for whom it went from secure to insecure

during the years of the study, and those whose food access went from

insecure to secure. The scientists compared average academic performance

and measurements among these groups.

Gender differences emerged when children went from an environment of

secure food resources to uncertain food supplies, the new study finds.

Boys tended to gain some weight, girls to lose it. These boys exhibited

slightly better-than-average social skills for their age, whereas the

girls' social skills lagged those of their food-secure peers. Social

skills were graded by teachers according to kids' apparent self-control,

signs of anxiety or depression, and attitudes consistent with learning.

Affects of food on academic performance also varied with gender, the new

study finds. For instance, among only girls, persistent food insecurity

was associated with a significant delay in reading achievement over the 3

years studied. In that span, the children were expected to gain about 70

points in reading scores. Girls who experienced food insecurity at any

time during the 3 years gained, on average, only 68 points in reading

scores, and those who came from households with persistent food insecurity

gained about 67 points. Boys also showed somewhat slower reading

achievements with food insecurity, but the shortfall was much smaller than

for girls and not really notable except among boys who went from food

security in kindergarten to uncertain food access in third grade.

How important was the delay in reading achievement experienced by these

children, especially the girls? " It's hard to say, " Frongillo says.

" Certainly, it's not a huge effect. " On the other hand, he says, most

educators would be thrilled to find some factor that could raise kids'

reading abilities a few points.

Food insecurity also correlated with a small delay in mathematical

achievements. As with reading, the math-achievement shortfalls were bigger

among the girls than among the boys.

Finally, youngsters from homes that persistently experienced unreliable

food supplies showed a slightly greater gain in body-mass index (a

height-adjusted measure of heaviness) and tended, on average, to weigh

about 0.65 kilogram more than children their age from homes with

consistently secure food supplies. This counterintuitive trend of insecure

food situations yielding heavier kids may reflect the fact that higher-fat

and less-nutritious foods tend to be cheaper than healthier fare and so

make up a disproportionate share of meals in poor families (see Money

Matters in Obesity).

A sign of struggling

Many studies have linked childhood malnutrition with slow learning.

However, Frongillo points out, the children in this study weren't

starving. Rather, they were sometimes hungry. The fact that many gained

more weight than their peers did suggests that low-income children weren't

experiencing a calorie shortfall as much as uncertain access to good

nutrition, say the researchers. These kids might have had plenty of bread

or rice, for instance, but little access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Or they might have had bacon and cold cuts but no fish or lean meats.

In fact, Frongillo suspects, food insecurity may not have had a direct

effect on the academic measures in this study. But a family's food

resources may be a marker of other stresses in the household—income

insecurity, for instance—that might foster anger, violence, chaotic study

environments, or simply less presence by adults who can enforce study time

and coach slow learners.

In other words, the Cornell scientist says, the academic deficits seen in

this study " may be tip of the iceberg " of what's happening to children in

environments so stressful they can't even count on getting good and

plentiful food. Food insecurity, he says, may simply point to " families

that are struggling " with a host of problems.

However, to the extent that even classroom achievement and behavior is

being affected, children facing what scientists call food insecurity may

warrant extra academic services from schools, Frongillo says. " Based on

everything we know about basic skills, " he notes, " gaps seen in the early

years will just intensify over time, " leading, potentially, to serious

achievement and behavioral differences in kids' high school years.

References:

Jyoti, D.F., E.A. Frongillo, and S.J. . 2005. Food insecurity affects

school children's academic performance, weight gain, and social skills.

Journal of Nutrition 135(December):2831-2839. Abstract available at

http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/135/12/2831.

Further Readings:

Darmon, N., E.L. Ferguson, and A. Briend. 2002. A cost constraint alone

has adverse effects on food selection and nutrient density: An analysis of

human diets by linear programming. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

132(December):3764-3771. Available at

http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/132/12/3764.

Drewnowski, A., and N. Darmon. 2005. The economics of obesity: Dietary

energy density and energy cost. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

82(July 1):265S-273S. Abstract available at

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/82/1/265S.

Raloff, J. 2005. When kids eat out. Science News Online (Oct. 8).

Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051008/food.asp.

______. 2005. Money matters in obesity. Science News Online (July 16).

Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050716/food.asp.

______. 2003. School lunches are struggling to earn high marks. Science

News Online (May 17). Available at

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20030517/food.asp.

Sources:

A. Frongillo Jr.

Division of Nutritional Sciences

B17 Savage Hall

Cornell University

Ithaca, New York 14853-6301

*

The material in this post is distributed without

profit to those who have expressed a prior interest

in receiving the included information for research

and educational purposes.For more information go to:

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

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