Exploration of how emotional social support predicts food insecurity among college students

Abstract

Food insecurity has broad detrimental impacts on college students, including failing grades, depression, and social disconnection. Social disconnection is concerning as students often use various support resources to manage food insecurity. Racial disparities in food insecurity are well documented in the literature. The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between constructs of emotional support and food insecurity among African American and White students. A validated electronic survey based on the Sense of Support Scale and the U.S. Food Security Scale was utilized for the study. Results indicated that specific constructs of emotional social support were associated with food insecurity (OR: 3.778; p = .011); (OR: −2.116; p = .036). Students who reported strong emotional ties were more likely to experience food insecurity (OR = − 3.837, p = .044). Findings implicate further campus outreach to all students.

Keywords:

• Community health
• food insecurity
• emotional support
• health disparities
• social support

Acknowledgments

We thank the instructors for allowing us to recruit from their classes and conduct the study.

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 United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Middle Tennessee State University.

Funding

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