Gender bias in the food insecurity experience of Ethiopian adolescents
Gender bias in the food insecurity experience of Ethiopian adolescents
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DOI：
10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.08.025
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发表时间：
2008-01-01
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
Belachew, Tefara
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hadley, Craig;Lindstrom, David;Belachew, Tefara
粮食不安全是许多发展中国家一个紧迫的公共卫生问题。尽管人们对粮食无保障的社会文化决定因素普遍感兴趣，但对于生活在粮食无保障家庭中的青年是否经历粮食无保障却知之甚少。这里审查的缓冲假设假定，家庭的成年成员将尽可能地缓冲较年轻的家庭成员，使其免受粮食不安全的不利影响。缓冲假设的一个变体认为，只有某些家庭成员会享受缓冲的好处。我们假设，在埃塞俄比亚的背景下，女孩在历史上经历了歧视，缓冲是优先针对男孩，特别是家庭经历更大程度的粮食压力。这些假设进行了测试，从人口为基础的研究，2084青少年生活在埃塞俄比亚西南部的数据。结果表明，男孩和女孩同样可能生活在粮食严重不安全的家庭中。尽管她们家庭的粮食不安全状况没有差别，但女孩比男孩更有可能报告自己的粮食不安全状况。这种性别差异在粮食严重不安全的家庭中最大。在比较生活在同一家庭的男女兄弟姐妹时，也观察到了同样的模式。这些结果首先表明，家庭一级的粮食不安全措施可以预测青少年的粮食不安全经历，而且在埃塞俄比亚的社会文化背景下，家庭一级的粮食不安全和青少年粮食不安全之间的关系因性别而异。我们还表明，青少年粮食不安全与一般健康和福祉的措施密切相关。(c)2007爱思唯尔有限公司保留所有权利。
Food insecurity is a pressing public health concern in many developing countries. Despite widespread interest in the sociocultural determinants of food insecurity, little is known about whether youths living in food insecure households experience food insecurity. The buffering hypothesis reviewed here assumes that, to the extent possible, adult members of households will buffer younger household members from the ill effects of food insecurity. A variant of the buffering hypothesis argues that only certain members of the households will enjoy the benefits of buffering. We hypothesize that within the context of Ethiopia, where girls have historically experienced discrimination, buffering is preferentially aimed at boys, especially as the household experiences greater levels of food stress. These hypotheses are tested using data from a population-based study of 2084 adolescents living in southwestern Ethiopia. Results indicate that boys and girls were equally likely to be living in severely food insecure households. Despite no differences in their households' food insecurity status, girls were more likely than boys to report being food insecure themselves. This gender difference was the largest in severely food insecure households. This same pattern was observed when comparing male-female sibling pairs living in the same household. These results are among the first to show that household level measures of food insecurity predict adolescent experiences of food insecurity, and that in the Ethiopian socio-cultural context, the relationship between household level food insecurity and adolescent food insecurity varies by gender. We also show that adolescent food insecurity is strongly associated with measures of general health and well-being. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.