Is Child Food Insecurity Underreported? Evidence from Daily, Monthly, and 9-Month Measures

Objective
This exploratory study examines how consistently parents report their own and their children’s food insecurity across daily, monthly, and 9-month timescales. Using a subsample from a larger study, this exploratory analysis offers preliminary insight into the alignment of food insecurity reports across shorter versus longer reference periods.
Methods
Low-income parents with school-aged children answered daily, monthly, and 9-month food insecurity questions from January to October 2021 (n = 125). Significance tests were conducted to estimate if food insecurity measures at different timescales agreed, and if not, in which direction they diverged. Regression analyses identified how food insecurity severity, frequency, and recency were associated with underreporting on food insecurity across longer time intervals.
Results
At every level explored, preliminary findings suggest that food insecurity is underestimated when reported over longer timescales. Parents reported less child food insecurity at the monthly level compared to the daily level. Household and parent food insecurity were more consistently reported across time scales. Families with less severe food insecurity were more likely than families with more severe food insecurity to underreport at monthly and yearly levels.
Conclusions
These results highlight potential limitations of the standard 12-month food insecurity measure, particularly for capturing child experiences. Although exploratory in nature, they suggest that shorter recall intervals may offer more accurate insights. Because these measures motivate and inform national food assistance policy, improving how we assess child food insecurity is critical. Future research with larger samples is needed to validate and extend these findings.