The effect of child hunger on educational attainment and early childbearing outcomes in a longitudinal population sample of Canadian youth.

Purpose: Early childhood experiences of poverty are associated with adverse developmental outcomes that have impli cations for individual and population health. Low educational attainment and early childbearing are two such important outcomes that can perpetuate childhood poverty into adulthood. Child hunger, or severe food insecurity, is an extreme manifestation of household food insecurity that is associated with the stressful experience of deep family poverty. Life-course theories suggest that childhood experiences of hunger could have adverse effects in the developmental pathway. The objective of this study was to examine the independent contribution of the child hunger experience to subsequent educational attainment and early childbearing in young adult men and women, in consideration of other latent, cumulative or shock effects associated with child poverty.

Methods: We analyzed National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth data using logistic regression based on 15,468 Canadian children followed over 16 years.

Results: The prevalence of the experience of child hunger was 5.0%. Child hunger was independently predictive of youth leaving high school, yet was not a factor in the achievement of higher educational attainment if youth were able to graduate from high school. Having always lived in rental accommodation and repeated reports of child hunger over time were predictive of early childbearing.

Conclusions: Interventions directed at children and youth who are at risk of poor developmental outcomes because of severe food insecurity should focus on steering families toward their income entitlements, and providing support for youth to complete high school and to avoid early fertility.