Experiences and Situations of Shame among Food-insecure Adolescents in South Carolina and Oregon

ABSTRACT

Shame experienced with food insecurity and participating in food assistance may affect adolescents. We investigated adolescents’ experiences of shame related to food insecurity and situations for these experiences in an ethnically diverse sample of 40 adolescents aged 9–15 years from South Carolina and Oregon. In-depth interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed. Participants described feelings of sadness, anger, and internalized shame with food insecurity. Salient situations were participating in food assistance, seeking food assistance from others or community services, and social encounters at school among peers. Adolescents felt shame knowing that peers were aware of their food insecurity and about them participating in food assistance through school.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• children
• adolescents
• shame
• food assistance
• social interactions

Author disclosures

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture through the RIDGE Center for Targeted Studies at Purdue University [8000062451].