Development and Validation of a Child Report Assessment of Child Food Insecurity and Comparison to Parent Report Assessment

Abstract

Child food insecurity (CFI) is typically assessed using parental report of child experiences, which works well for assessing food insecurity but may be inadequate for assessing children's experiences of the household food environment. This study used mixed methods to develop and validate a child report assessment of CFI, comparing the accuracy of child versus parent report. Children reported their food insecurity with high accuracy in 4 of 6 domains; parent reports were inaccurate, missing nearly half of the children experiencing hunger. Parent report may accurately reflect household food insecurity, but child report should be used to assess children's food-related needs.