Gahan Elise, Farooqui Sara, Leung Cindy W
Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
College of Literature, Science and the Arts, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Health Equity. 2022 Aug 18;6(1):595-602. doi: 10.1089/heq.2022.0067. eCollection 2022.
There is a high prevalence of food insecurity on college campuses in the United States. Quantitative research has shown that experiencing food insecurity during college is associated with adverse academic, health, and social-emotional outcomes. Research is needed to better understand how food insecurity impacts the lived experiences of students. This study aims to understand students' experiences of food insecurity, with a particular focus on their coping strategies and the effects of food insecurity on their health and academic achievement.
An adaptation of the PhotoVoice method was used to understand how food insecurity affected 10 college students at a large, Midwestern university. Students submitted photos around their experiences of food insecurity and completed an in-depth interview about their photos. The interviews were analyzed for thematic content using an iterative, inductive approach.
Four themes emerged from the results: (1) economic coping mechanisms, (2) behavioral coping mechanisms; (3) alternate ways to acquire food; and (4) psychosocial and academic consequences.
These findings provide context to the negative impacts of food insecurity on students' academic and health outcomes, and add to the growing body of qualitative research that is needed to inform practices and policies to address food insecurity on college campuses.
在美国大学校园中，粮食不安全问题普遍存在。定量研究表明，大学期间经历粮食不安全与不良的学业、健康及社会情感后果相关。需要开展研究以更好地理解粮食不安全如何影响学生的生活经历。本研究旨在了解学生的粮食不安全经历，特别关注他们的应对策略以及粮食不安全对其健康和学业成绩的影响。
采用摄影之声法的改编形式，以了解粮食不安全如何影响一所位于中西部的大型大学的10名学生。学生提交了围绕其粮食不安全经历的照片，并就这些照片完成了一次深度访谈。采用迭代归纳法对访谈的主题内容进行分析。
结果出现了四个主题：（1）经济应对机制；（2）行为应对机制；（3）获取食物的其他方式；（4）心理社会及学业后果。
这些发现为粮食不安全对学生学业和健康结果的负面影响提供了背景信息，并补充了越来越多的定性研究，这些研究对于为解决大学校园粮食不安全问题的实践和政策提供信息是必要的。
