Is Food Security Influencing Emotional Health? A Study with Hispanic Immigrant Mothers

Abstract

IntroductionHispanic immigrants in the U.S. often face a number of negative conditions that influence their emotional health. These problems can be heightened when there are low resources such as food insecurity and pressing stressors. This study looks to understand if food insecurity and acculturation predict depression levels for Hispanic immigrant mothers. From previous literature we hypothesize that food insecurity and higher levels of stress will predict higher depression levels.MethodsThis study used the Larger Multi‐State Abriendo Caminos Intervention program data. Hispanic immigrant mothers completed surveys at pre‐post and 6 month follow up time points. Food security was measured with USDA food security short module. Depression was measured with the CESD‐10 questionnaire and stress with Cohen's perceived stress scale. Multiple regression models were used to analyze data collected at baseline for the Illinois and California cohorts (N= 100). Among our participants, 36% reported some food insecurity with 6% of those having very low food security. Furthermore 24% had depression and, compared to other Hispanic populations, our participants had high levels of stress.ResultsHigher levels of food insecurity significantly predicted maternal depression (β = 0.314, p <0 .001), regardless of acculturation level. Food insecurity explained 10% of the variance in rates of depression and in this analyses higher acculturation levels to Anglo American behaviors account for another 2% of the variance although it is not significant. In addition, when stress was included in the analyses it accounted for an additional 23% of model variance and was a significant predictor of depression (β = 0.48, p < 0.001).ConclusionWe found that food insecurity and stress significantly predicted depression regardless of acculturation level. These psychological variables have been associated with food consumption patterns and weight‐related outcomes in other low income populations. Therefore, our findings suggest the importance of including food insecurity and psychological variables in future research to explore possible interactions with effects on nutritional and behavior outcomes.Support or Funding InformationThis project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive grantno. 2015‐60001‐23246 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.