Hunger in children in the United States: Potential behavioral and emotional correlates
Hunger in children in the United States: Potential behavioral and emotional correlates
复制标题
DOI：
10.1542/peds.101.1.e3
复制
发表时间：
1998-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
8
通讯作者：
Jellinek, MS
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kleinman, RE;Murphy, JM;Jellinek, MS
Objective.社区儿童饥饿识别项目（CCHIP）最近对9个州和哥伦比亚特区进行的一系列调查的结果估计，每年有400万美国儿童经历长期的周期性食物不足和饥饿，占该国12岁以下儿童的8%。同样的研究表明，另有1 000万儿童面临饥饿的危险。目前的研究探讨了饥饿之间的关系所定义的CCHIP措施（粮食不足归因于有限的资源）和变量，反映了低收入，学龄儿童的心理社会功能。该研究小组包括来自CCHIP研究的328名父母和儿童，这些家庭至少有一个12岁以下的孩子居住在匹兹堡市和周边的阿勒格尼县。采用两阶段面积概率抽样设计和标准聚类技术。所有在采访时孩子年龄在6岁至12岁之间的父母都被要求完成一份儿科症状清单，这是一份简短的父母报告问卷，用于评估儿童的情绪和行为症状。饥饿状况的定义是父母对CCHIP调查中标准的8个食物不足问题的回答，这些问题用于将家庭和儿童分为“饥饿”、“有饥饿风险”或“不饥饿”。“结果。在低收入家庭的区域概率样本中，那些在CCHIP测量中被定义为饥饿的儿童在儿科症状检查表上的心理社会功能障碍的临床水平明显高于被定义为饥饿或不饥饿风险的儿童。对儿童症状自评量表的单项和因子得分的分析表明，几乎所有的行为、情绪和学业问题在饥饿儿童中更为普遍，但攻击性和焦虑与饥饿经历的关联程度最强。来自报告多次食物不足和饥饿经历的家庭的儿童更有可能在心理社会功能障碍的标准化测量中表现出行为，情感和学业问题，而来自同一低收入社区的儿童则没有报告饥饿经历。虽然因果关系不能确定从一个横截面的设计，这些研究结果的力量表明，提高认识的重要性，对部分的卫生保健提供者和公共卫生官员的作用，粮食不足和饥饿的贫困儿童的生活。
Objective. Results from a recent series of surveys from 9 states and the District of Columbia by the Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project (CCHIP) provide an estimate that 4 million American children experience prolonged periodic food insufficiency and hunger each year, 8% of the children under the age of 12 in this country. The same studies show that an additional 10 million children are at risk for hunger. The current study examined the relationship between hunger as defined by the CCHIP measure (food insufficiency attributable to constrained resources) and variables reflecting the psychosocial functioning of low-income, school-aged children.Methods. The study group included 328 parents and children from a CCHIP study of families with at least 1 child under the age of 12 years living in the city of Pittsburgh and the surrounding Allegheny County. A two-stage area probability sampling design with standard cluster techniques was used. All parents whose child was between the ages of 6 and 12 years at the time of interview were asked to complete a Pediatric Symptom Checklist, a brief parent-report questionnaire that assesses children's emotional and behavioral symptoms. Hunger status was defined by parent responses to the standard 8 food-insufficiency questions from the CCHIP survey that are used to classify households and children as "hungry," "at-risk for hunger," or "not hungry."Results. In an area probability sample of low-income families, those defined as hungry on the CCHIP measure were significantly more likely to have clinical levels of psychosocial dysfunction on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist than children defined as at-risk for hunger or not hungry. Analysis of individual items and factor scores on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist showed that virtually all behavioral, emotional, and academic problems were more prevalent in hungry children, but that aggression and anxiety had the strongest degree of association with experiences of hunger.Conclusion. Children from families that report multiple experiences of food insufficiency and hunger are more likely to show behavioral, emotional, and academic problems on a standardized measure of psychosocial dysfunction than children from the same low-income communities whose families do not report experiences of hunger. Although causality cannot be determined from a cross-sectional design, the strength of these findings suggests the importance of greater awareness on the part of health care providers and public health officials of the role of food insufficiency and hunger in the lives of poor children.