IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i6p1571-d214085.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Everybody I Know Is Always Hungry…But Nobody Asks Why”: University Students, Food Insecurity and Mental Health

Author

Listed:
  • Nayantara Hattangadi

    (Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada)

  • Ellen Vogel

    (Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada)

  • Linda J Carroll

    (School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9, Canada)

  • Pierre Côté

    (Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada)

Abstract

Food insecurity is a substantial problem in Canadian university students. Multiple cross-sectional studies suggest that nearly a third of university students across Canada report food insecurity. Yet, little is understood about the experiences of food-insecure students and the impact of their experiences on their mental health. To address this, a multi-method study was conducted using quantitative and qualitative approaches to describe the prevalence, association and experience of food insecurity and mental health in undergraduate students. The current paper reports on the qualitative component, which described the lived experiences of food-insecure students, captured through face-to-face focus group interviews with participants ( n = 6). The themes included (1) contributing factors to food insecurity; (2) consequences of food insecurity; and (3) students’ responses/attempts to cope with food insecurity. The findings illuminated student voices, added depth to quantitative results, and made the experience of food insecurity more visible at the undergraduate level. Additional research is needed to understand students’ diverse experiences across the university community and to inform programs to support students.

Suggested Citation

  • Nayantara Hattangadi & Ellen Vogel & Linda J Carroll & Pierre Côté, 2019. "“Everybody I Know Is Always Hungry…But Nobody Asks Why”: University Students, Food Insecurity and Mental Health," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-10, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1571-:d:214085
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1571/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1571/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rachel Loopstra & Valerie Tarasuk, 2012. "The Relationship between Food Banks and Household Food Insecurity among Low-Income Toronto Families," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 38(4), pages 497-514, December.
    2. Barbara Davis & Valerie Tarasuk, 1994. "Hunger in Canada," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 11(4), pages 50-57, September.
    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. Kelly J. Hodgins & Evan D. G. Fraser, 2018. ""We are a business, not a social service agency." Barriers to widening access for low-income shoppers in alternative food market spaces," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(1), pages 149-162, March.
    2. Higgins, Christopher D. & Páez, Antonio & Kim, Gyoorie & Wang, Jue, 2021. "Changes in accessibility to emergency and community food services during COVID-19 and implications for low income populations in Hamilton, Ontario," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    3. Matteo Vittuari & Fabio De Menna & Silvia Gaiani & Luca Falasconi & Alessandro Politano & Jana Dietershagen & Andrea Segrè, 2017. "The Second Life of Food: An Assessment of the Social Impact of Food Redistribution Activities in Emilia Romagna, Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Benita Y. Tam & Leanne Findlay & Dafna Kohen, 2014. "Social Networks as a Coping Strategy for Food Insecurity and Hunger for Young Aboriginal and Canadian Children," Societies, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-14, September.
    5. Ourega-Zoé Ejebu & Stephen Whybrow & Lynda Mckenzie & Elizabeth Dowler & Ada L Garcia & Anne Ludbrook & Karen Louise Barton & Wendy Louise Wrieden & Flora Douglas, 2018. "What can Secondary Data Tell Us about Household Food Insecurity in a High-Income Country Context?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Ron Kneebone & Margarita Wilkins, 2022. "The Sensitivity of Food Bank Visits to Social Assistance, Housing and Labour Market Conditions in Toronto," SPP Research Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 15(10), March.
    7. Federico Roncarolo & Sherri Bisset & Louise Potvin, 2016. "Short-Term Effects of Traditional and Alternative Community Interventions to Address Food Insecurity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-14, March.
    8. Lee, Deishin & Sönmez, Erkut & Gómez, Miguel I. & Fan, Xiaoli, 2017. "Combining two wrongs to make two rights: Mitigating food insecurity and food waste through gleaning operations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 40-52.
    9. Holmes, Eleanor & Black, Jennifer L. & Heckelman, Amber & Lear, Scott A. & Seto, Darlene & Fowokan, Adeleke & Wittman, Hannah, 2018. "“Nothing is going to change three months from now”: A mixed methods characterization of food bank use in Greater Vancouver," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 129-136.
    10. Sylvain Charlebois & Meghan Smook & Brenda Nyambura Wambui & Simon Somogyi & Megan Racey & Don Fiander & Janet Music & Isabelle Caron, 2021. "Can Canadians afford the new Canada's Food Guide? Assessing Barriers and Challenges," Journal of Food Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, December.
    11. Bedük, Selçuk, 2018. "Identifying people in poverty: a multidimensional deprivation measure for the EU," SocArXiv 7prxq, Center for Open Science.
    12. Edge, Sara & Meyer, Samantha B., 2019. "Pursuing dignified food security through novel collaborative governance initiatives: Perceived benefits, tensions and lessons learned," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 77-85.
    13. Meike Rombach & Eunkyung Kang & Vera Bitsch, 2018. "Good deeds revisited: motivation and boundary spanning in formal volunteering," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 15(1), pages 105-126, March.
    14. Flora Douglas & Fiona MacKenzie & Ourega-Zoé Ejebu & Stephen Whybrow & Ada L. Garcia & Lynda McKenzie & Anne Ludbrook & Elizabeth Dowler, 2018. "“ A Lot of People Are Struggling Privately. They Don’t Know Where to Go or They’re Not Sure of What to Do ”: Frontline Service Provider Perspectives of the Nature of Household Food Insecurity in Scotl," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, December.
    15. Sue Booth & Christina Pollard & John Coveney & Ian Goodwin-Smith, 2018. "‘Sustainable’ Rather Than ‘Subsistence’ Food Assistance Solutions to Food Insecurity: South Australian Recipients’ Perspectives on Traditional and Social Enterprise Models," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, September.
    16. Barιş Ata & Deishin Lee & Erkut Sönmez, 2019. "Dynamic Volunteer Staffing in Multicrop Gleaning Operations," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 295-314, March.
    17. Sriroop Chaudhuri & Mimi Roy & Louis M. McDonald & Yves Emendack, 2021. "Coping Behaviours and the concept of Time Poverty: a review of perceived social and health outcomes of food insecurity on women and children," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 1049-1068, August.
    18. Alkaabneh, Faisal & Diabat, Ali & Gao, Huaizhu Oliver, 2021. "A unified framework for efficient, effective, and fair resource allocation by food banks using an Approximate Dynamic Programming approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    19. Miewald, Christiana & McCann, Eugene & Temenos, Cristina & McIntosh, Alison, 2019. "“I do my best to eat while I'm using”: Mapping the foodscapes of people living with HIV/AIDS who use drugs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 96-103.
    20. Qiping Yang & Tong Yuan & Lina Yang & Jiaojiao Zou & Meimei Ji & Yefu Zhang & Jing Deng & Qian Lin, 2019. "Household Food Insecurity, Dietary Diversity, Stunting, and Anaemia among Left-Behind Children in Poor Rural Areas of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-13, November.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1571-:d:214085. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.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.