Tracking Trends in Food Insecurity and Psychological Wellbeing over the SNAP Month

Federal food assistance programs, particularly SNAP, reduce food insecurity among the families who receive it, but high rates of food insecurity in the U.S. demonstrate that these benefits do not fully meet low-income families’ nutritional needs. Specifically, SNAP benefits do not typically last families the entire month, with food insecurity spiking at the end of the SNAP month for many recipients. The consequences of these economic shortfalls are severe: children’s test scores decline (Gassman-Pines & Bellows, 2018), their behavior problems in school increase (Gennetian et al., 2016), and crimes – particularly theft from food stores – rise at the end of the SNAP month (Carr & Packham, 2019). These are serious problems for the SNAP program and the families who depend on SNAP to make ends meet.

This pilot grant will gather daily surveys from a national sample of SNAP recipients in order to investigate the following specific aims:

  1. What is the pattern of daily food insecurity throughout the SNAP month? How does this vary for child-level and household-level food insecurity?
  2. What are the patterns of children’s wellbeing throughout the SNAP month? Do these patterns vary alongside child- or household-level food insecurity?
  3. What are the psychological mechanisms that help explain links between the timing of the SNAP benefit cycle and children’s wellbeing?
Academic Year
2023-2024
Primary Funding Agency
NIA/CPHA Pilot & NICHD/DRPC Pilot
Award Year
Duke Principal Investigator(s)