The role of university students’ wellness in links between homelessness, food insecurity, and academic success

ABSTRACT

In recent years there has been a steep increase in attention among higher education professionals to the prevalence of unmet basic needs among college students. There is also growing acknowledgement that food insecurity and homelessness among students is associated with incredible distress and a host of negative consequences for students’ success. Understanding the mechanisms that link basic needs insecurity to academic success could identify critical points of intervention to ensure educational equity among students. Our aim was to determine whether university students’ wellness mediated the association between unmet basic needs (i.e. homelessness and food insecurity) and academic success. Of the 1,330 students at a large southeastern U.S. university who completed an online survey (28% response rate), 15.49% were food insecure and 9.47% had been homeless in the past 12 months. Results of multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that psychological well-being and sleep mediated the link between food security and GPA. Homelessness was not associated with GPA, so mediation was not examined. Implications for addressing homelessness and food insecurity among college students are offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Student homelessness
• food insecurity
• well-being
• sleep
• GPA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, NC State University: [Grant Number 000].

Notes on contributors

Mary E. Haskett

Mary E. Haskett is Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University where her research team focuses on adjustment of children with a history of maltreatment and homelessness. She is currently conducting research on interventions to promote positive parenting and reduce risk of maltreatment among parents residing in emergency shelters and transitional housing. Dr. Haskett and her students are also exploring homelessness and food insecurity among college students. Dr. Haskett is a past president of the Section on Child Maltreatment of the APA Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. In 2016, she was honored to be the recipient of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth Staci Perlman Research award.

Suman Majumder

Suman Majumder is a Ph.D. candidate in Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University. He has completed his bachelor's and master's degree in Statistics from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. His research interests include robust statistics and spatial statistics with application towards climate modeling and environmental science. During his bachelor's and master's degree he did extensive research on the theory and application of robust statistics which resulted in published papers and conference presentations. His current research topics are geared towards forecast corrections for PM2.5 and fusing large datasets obtained from multiple satellites to create a more consistent map of NDVI over the seasons.

Dana Kotter- Grühn

A native of Germany, Dana Kotter-Gruehn obtained her B.S. and M.S. in Psychology from Dresden University of Technology and her Ph.D. in Psychology from the Free University, Berlin. Trained as a lifespan developmental psychologist, her research focuses on psychosocial development in adulthood and old age. More recently, her work in academic and student affairs has led to her involvement in research and initiatives pertaining to student food and housing insecurity. She currently serves as the director of undergraduate advising in the Department of Psychology at NC State University. She teaches a variety of courses (e.g. Research Methods, Psychology of Gender, Developmental Psychology), holds career workshops, and is involved in curriculum and course development in the Psychology department.

Indira Gutierrez

A native of Colombia, Indira Gutierrez is a PhD student at University of South Carolina. She has completed her bachelor's degree in Psychology with minors in Biology and Cognitive Sciences from North Carolina State University. Her research interests include food insecurity and the effect of nutrition on cognitive ability. During her bachelor's degree she did research on and became an advocate for collegiate food and housing insecurity efforts alongside Dr. Mary Haskett. She co-founded the NC State Basic Student Needs Coalition that immediately won the Deborah S. Moore Memorial Service Award. Her current research topics are geared towards the effects social determinants of health on health care adherence with Dr. Spencer Moore at the University of South Carolina.