IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jfamec/v41y2020i3d10.1007_s10834-020-09686-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using a Bifactor Model to Measure Food Insecurity in Households with Children

Author

Listed:
  • Victoria T. Tanaka

    (The University of Georgia)

  • George Engelhard

    (The University of Georgia)

  • Matthew P. Rabbitt

    (U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Abstract

In this study, we explored the dimensionality of U.S. food security measures using bifactor measurement models estimated on a sample of low-income households with children from the CPS Food Security Supplement. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food security as access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle. In the United States, food security is measured by the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) which is an 18-item survey module that asks information about the food security of a household’s adult and child members, if present. Previous research suggests the HFSSM may exhibit multidimensionality among households with children. Employing bifactor models in this study allowed us to explore the dimensionality of the HFSSM and identify potential subscales. Our findings suggest the HFSSM captures a single dimension of food security for households with children. The reliability of specific factor scores reflecting subscales for the adult and child items were very low, and the analyses suggest that caution should be used when interpreting separate subscale scores.

Suggested Citation

  • Victoria T. Tanaka & George Engelhard & Matthew P. Rabbitt, 2020. "Using a Bifactor Model to Measure Food Insecurity in Households with Children," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 492-504, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:41:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s10834-020-09686-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10834-020-09686-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10834-020-09686-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10834-020-09686-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karl Holzinger & Frances Swineford, 1937. "The Bi-factor method," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 2(1), pages 41-54, March.
    2. Nord, Mark, 2012. "Assessing Potential Technical Enhancements to the U.S. Household Food Security Measures," Technical Bulletins 142549, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Rabbitt, Matthew P., 2013. "Measuring the Effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation on Food Insecurity Using a Behavioral Rasch Selection Model," UNCG Economics Working Papers 13-20, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    4. Chalmers, R. Philip, 2012. "mirt: A Multidimensional Item Response Theory Package for the R Environment," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i06).
    5. Robert Gibbons & Donald Hedeker, 1992. "Full-information item bi-factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 57(3), pages 423-436, September.
    6. Smith, Michael D. & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Coleman- Jensen, Alisha, 2017. "Who are the World’s Food Insecure? New Evidence from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 402-412.
    7. Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Coleman-Jensen, Alisha, 2017. "Rasch analyses of the standardized Spanish translation of the U.S. household food security survey module," Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, IOS Press, issue 2, pages 171-187.
    8. Nord, Mark, 2012. "Assessing Potential Technical Enhancements to the U.S. Household Food Security Measures," Technical Bulletins 142549, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nana Kim & Daniel M. Bolt & James Wollack, 2022. "Noncompensatory MIRT For Passage-Based Tests," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 87(3), pages 992-1009, September.
    2. Elena Grimaccia & Alessia Naccarato, 2020. "Confirmatory factor analysis to validate a new measure of food insecurity: perceived and actual constructs," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1211-1232, August.
    3. Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Smith, Michael D., 2021. "Food Insecurity Among Working-Age Veterans," USDA Miscellaneous 311332, United States Department of Agriculture.
    4. Elena Grimaccia & Alessia Naccarato, 2019. "Food Insecurity Individual Experience: A Comparison of Economic and Social Characteristics of the Most Vulnerable Groups in the World," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 391-410, May.
    5. Michael Edwards, 2010. "A Markov Chain Monte Carlo Approach to Confirmatory Item Factor Analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 75(3), pages 474-497, September.
    6. Christian A. Gregory, 2020. "Are We Underestimating Food Insecurity? Partial Identification with a Bayesian 4-Parameter IRT Model," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 37(3), pages 632-655, October.
    7. Michela Gnaldi & Silvia Bacci & Thiemo Kunze & Samuel Greiff, 2020. "Students’ Complex Problem Solving Profiles," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 85(2), pages 469-501, June.
    8. MacLachlan, Matthew & Chelius, Carolyn & Short, Gianna, 2022. "Time-Series Methods for Forecasting and Modeling Uncertainty in the Food Price Outlook," USDA Miscellaneous 327370, United States Department of Agriculture.
    9. Minjeong Jeon & Frank Rijmen & Sophia Rabe-Hesketh, 2013. "Modeling Differential Item Functioning Using a Generalization of the Multiple-Group Bifactor Model," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 38(1), pages 32-60, February.
    10. Adam M. Lippert & Barrett A. Lee, 2021. "Adult and Child Food Insecurity Among Homeless and Precariously-Housed Families at the Close of the Twentieth Century," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(2), pages 231-253, April.
    11. Krupskii, Pavel & Joe, Harry, 2015. "Structured factor copula models: Theory, inference and computation," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 53-73.
    12. Vanderleia Martins Lohn & Rafael Tezza & Graziela Dias Alperstedt & Lucila M. S. Campos, 2017. "Future Professionals: A Study of Sustainable Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-15, March.
    13. Ibrahim Kasujja & Hugo Melgar-Quinonez & Joweria Nambooze, 2023. "Day Scholars Food Insecurity Experience Scale-Survey Module (DSFIES-SM): Psychometric Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    14. Paul A. Jewsbury & Peter W. van Rijn, 2020. "IRT and MIRT Models for Item Parameter Estimation With Multidimensional Multistage Tests," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 45(4), pages 383-402, August.
    15. Li Cai, 2015. "Lord–Wingersky Algorithm Version 2.0 for Hierarchical Item Factor Models with Applications in Test Scoring, Scale Alignment, and Model Fit Testing," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 80(2), pages 535-559, June.
    16. Elena A. Erosheva & S. McKay Curtis, 2017. "Dealing with Reflection Invariance in Bayesian Factor Analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 82(2), pages 295-307, June.
    17. Rabbitt, Matthew P., 2013. "Measuring the Effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation on Food Insecurity Using a Behavioral Rasch Selection Model," UNCG Economics Working Papers 13-20, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    18. Smith, Michael D. & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Coleman- Jensen, Alisha, 2017. "Who are the World’s Food Insecure? New Evidence from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 402-412.
    19. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Gregory, Christian A., 2017. "Examining an "Experimental" Food Security Status Classification Method for Households with Children," Technical Bulletins 264418, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    20. Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Smith, Michael D., 2021. "Food Insecurity Among Working-Age Veterans," USDA Miscellaneous 311332, United States Department of Agriculture.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:41:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s10834-020-09686-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.