Food security and part-time work for students: do race and region play a role?

Abstract

Objective

This study explored the relationship between weekly hours worked and food security among full-time college students in the United States, as well as the extent to which this relationship depends on racial identity and regional location.

Participants/Methods

We performed a secondary analysis of data from 1,450 full-time college students in the labor force who completed the 2019 Food Security Supplement to the Current Population Survey. Moderated multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the data.

Results

We found that among full-time college students in the labor force, working a greater number of hours per week was not related to one’s likelihood of being food insecure, with an exception for students who identified as Asian.

Conclusions

These findings highlight the importance of considering the intertwined nature of contributing factors to food security for specific groups of students.

Keywords:

• Food security
• college students
• university
• employment
• secondary analysis
• moderated multiple regression

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Jennifer G. Cromley (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) for her instruction and guidance throughout all aspects of this project, as well as for her feedback when writing the manuscript.

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 and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Data availability statement

The data that supports the findings of this study are openly available in the United States Census Bureau Data Repository at: https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/cps/cps-supp_cps-repwgt/cps-food-security.html#cpssupps.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research or the preparation of the manuscript.