Factors associated with food security of Texas Woman’s University freshmen

Abstract

Objective

To investigate what factors are associated with food insecurity (FI) among freshman students and identify potential solutions.

Participants

73 freshman students.

Methods

Cross-sectional, Internet survey-based study. Fisher’s Exact tests examined factors associated with food security (FS); Cohen’s Kappa assessed the agreement between FI scores and self-assessment; thematic analysis used Nvivo 12.

Results

FI was 54.2% among the diverse students (65% non-white). Factors associated with FS included mother with a college degree (p = .018); father employed full-time (p < .001); identifying one’s family financial situation as better than others (p = < .001); not obtaining personal student loans (p = 0.022). Students with FI tended to overestimate their FS status. Suggested solutions for FI included: improved finances, improved food accessibility, improved cooking skills.

Conclusions

Future interventions should target freshmen who obtain personal student loans or have parents with less than a college degree or unstable employment status. (148)

Keywords:

• Food insecurity
• food security
• freshman college students
• hunger
• disparities

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Stephanie M. Lopez-Neyman for her valuable assistance in acting as a second coder on the qualitative data. This study was supported by the TWU Center for Student Research.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Texas Woman’s University.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the TWU Center for Student Research.