Improving Food Security Classification of Households With Children

Abstract

We examine the extent to which the household food security classification methods currently used by the US Department of Agriculture may bias comparisons of food security between households with and without children and between households with children of different ages. An alternative method for classifying households with children as to their food security status is described that removes the source of those biases by considering the food security of adults and children based on separate measures. Using data from the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplements from 2001 to 2011, the analysis suggests that the current methods may have overstated the prevalence of food insecurity and understated the prevalence of very low food security in households with children vis-à-vis households without children. The extent to which very low food security may have been understated increased during and following the economic downturn of 2008.