Early Childhood Exposure to Violence and Violent Victimization in the Home: The Role of Persistent Household Food Insecurity

Purpose: Recent estimates suggest that, in a given year in the U.S., approximately 1 in 12 children (~ 8%) witness violence in the home, while nearly 4% of children are victims of physical violence in the home. Children who are victims of and/or witness violence in the home are at risk for a number of cognitive, social, and behavioral challenges as they age. A handful of recent studies have proposed that food insecurity may also be associated with violence against children in the home. Even so, extant studies are typically cross-sectional, have limited generalizability, and do not consider violence during the first few years of life, when neurological sensitivity to violence is especially heightened. The present study explores the link between household food insecurity and witnessing or being the victim of violence in the home among very young children (~ age 4).

Methods: Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a nationally representative study of young children and their families, are employed to test our research question. Questions about whether the child has witnessed a violent act within the home, or be the victim of such an act, were asked of the primary caregiver at the third wave of data collection, when children were approximately 4 years old. Questions for the core food insecurity module were employed during the first three waves of data collection to determine the extent to which households were food insecure and the persistence of food insecurity over time. Logistic and Negative Binomial regression techniques were employed in the present analysis.

Results: The results indicate that the odds of child exposure to violence as well as child violent victimization in the home were significantly higher in food insecure households, regardless of the wave that food insecurity was examined. The findings also reveal that the predicted probability of early childhood exposure to violence and/or victimization in the home is 5.65 times higher in persistently food insecure households (i.e., households that are food insecure across all three waves) relative to food secure households.

Conclusions: The present study is consistent with efforts to alleviate food insecurity, especially persistent food insecurity, among families with young children, as doing so may minimize the risk of violence in the home, including violence against children. Future research may want to build upon the current study and further investigate the social dynamics of food insecure homes that increase the risk of child exposure to violence and violent victimization.