Essays on Food Insecurity in the United States

Abstract

Food insecurity remains a persistent form of material hardship in the United States, with wide-ranging consequences for health and social inequality. This dissertation draws on nationally representative data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to investigate the determinants and outcomes of food insecurity. The first paper examines the role of racial residential segregation in generating and maintaining Black-White disparities in food insecurity, demonstrating that metropolitan-level segregation is a robust structural determinant of food insecurity among Black households, even after accounting for income, education, and wealth. The second paper uses latent class analysis to explore how adverse childhood experiences shape adult food insecurity, revealing that exposure to emotional distress and parental instability in childhood significantly increases the risk of food insecurity later in life. The third paper investigates the health consequences of food insecurity, showing that persistent exposure to food insecurity is strongly associated with higher levels of psychological distress and poorer self-rated health in adulthood. Together, these studies highlight the importance of structural and early-life determinants in shaping vulnerability to food insecurity and the enduring impact of food insecurity on adult well-being.