Nonresident Father’s In-Kind Support and Child Support Contributions on Child’s Household Food Insecurity

Daphne C. Hernandez, Pennsylvania State University
Emily Pressler, New York University

Using the first three waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey- Birth Cohort (n = 1450), the association between nonresident father involvement and household food insecurity among single mother households is investigated. Three patterns, or subgroups, of food insecurity were created: always food secure, persistently food insecure, and transitionally food insecure. Households that were persistently food insecure displayed the most disadvantaged by being the poorest among the three subgroups, in addition to receiving less child support and in-kind support. Logistic regressions indicate that households with legal and informal child support agreements are less likely to always be food secure and informal child support is associated with experiencing persistent food insecurity. However, greater in-kind support acts as a buffer to experiencing transitional food insecurity. Implications for financial allocations on household well-being are discussed.