Year

2021

Season

Spring

Paper Type

Master's Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

NACO controlled Corporate Body

University of North Florida. Department of Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Jody S. Nicholson

Second Advisor

Dr. Lauri Wright

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Abstract

The current study examined how developmental stages of adulthood (emerging, middle, and late) and household composition (living with or without children) influence the experiences of food insecurity in regard to food-related protective strategies and mental health consequences. Using a moderated moderation analysis, the impact of age conditional on the effects of household composition aimed to quantify how food-related protective strategies predicted levels of food insecurity thus leading to anxiety and depression. Results indicated developmental stages and household composition are non-significant moderators across three models. However, middle-adult participants demonstrated increased susceptibility to severe food insecurity, further contributing to literature on midlife vulnerability. Additionally, significant patterns in developmental stage and household composition were observed when examining the domains of food insecurity and food-related protective strategies but not mental health outcomes. Applying a developmental lens on research surrounding food insecurity provides important implications as to how coping and mental health manifest non-uniformly among varying demographic groups within food-insecure households.

Included in

Psychology Commons

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