IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/112504.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

More than money? Job quality and food insecurity among employed lone mother households in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Sheely, Amanda

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between food insecurity and the uncertainty and inadequate financial resources associated with low quality work among lone mother households in the United States. Food insecurity has increased since the start of the Great Recession and is particularly high among lone mother households. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I find that mothers who have been employed part-time involuntarily and experienced job loss have an increased likelihood of experiencing food insecurity. This relationship holds even after controlling for multiple measures of household income, suggesting the relationship between low quality work and food insecurity is not solely determined by low financial resources. Results suggest that, to reduce food insecurity among lone mother families, policymakers must address both the low wages and uncertainty associated with low quality employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheely, Amanda, 2022. "More than money? Job quality and food insecurity among employed lone mother households in the United States," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112504, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:112504
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/112504/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kelly Stamper Balistreri, 2016. "A Decade of Change: Measuring the Extent, Depth and Severity of Food Insecurity," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 373-382, September.
    2. Daniel Borowczyk-Martins & Etienne Lalé, 2015. "How Bad is Involuntary Part-time Work?," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 15/664, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK, revised 13 Jan 2016.
    3. Zachary Parolin & Sophie Collyer & Megan Curran & Christoper Wimer, 2021. "Monthly Poverty Rates among Children after the Expansion of the Child Tax Credit," Poverty and Social Policy Brief 20412, Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.
    4. Alisha Coleman-Jensen, 2011. "Working for Peanuts: Nonstandard Work and Food Insecurity Across Household Structure," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 84-97, March.
    5. Molly Dahl & Thomas DeLeire & Shannon Mok, 2014. "Food Insufficiency and Income Volatility in US Households: The Effects of Imputed Income in the Survey of Income and Program Participation," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 36(3), pages 416-437.
    6. Randy Albelda, 2011. "Time Binds: US Antipoverty Policies, Poverty, and the Well-Being of Single Mothers," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 189-214, October.
    7. Nord, Mark & Hopwood, Heather, 2008. "A Comparison of Household Food Security in Canada and the United States," Economic Research Report 56488, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    8. Devine, Carol M. & Connors, Margaret M. & Sobal, Jeffery & Bisogni, Carole A., 2003. "Sandwiching it in: spillover of work onto food choices and family roles in low- and moderate-income urban households," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 617-630, February.
    9. L. Bryan, Mark & P. Jenkins, Stephen, 2013. "Regression analysis of country effects using multilevel data: a cautionary tale," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-14, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    10. Nord, Mark & Andrews, Margaret S. & Carlson, Steven, 2008. "Household Food Security in the United States, 2007," Economic Research Report 56483, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    11. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P & Gregory, Christian A & Singh, Anita, 2020. "Household Food Security in the United States in 2019," Economic Research Report 327207, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    12. Herwig Immervoll & Stefano Scarpetta, 2012. "Activation and employment support policies in OECD countries. An overview of current approaches," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-20, December.
    13. repec:frd:wpaper:dp2016-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Janet C. Gornick & Laurie C. Maldonado & Amanda Sheely, 2022. "Single-Parent Families and Public Policy in High-Income Countries: Introduction to the Volume," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 702(1), pages 8-18, July.
    2. Alex Firestine & Audrey J. Murrell, 2024. "Built Environment and Gender-Based Vulnerability as Key Drivers of Food Insecurity in Allegheny County," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(7), pages 1-21, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emma Beacom & Sinéad Furey & Lynsey Hollywood & Paul Humphreys, 2021. "Conceptualising household food insecurity in Northern Ireland: risk factors, implications for society and the economy, and recommendations for business and policy response," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(5), pages 1-22, May.
    2. Rania Antonopoulos & Kijong Kim & Thomas Masterson & Andajit Zacharias, 2010. "Why President Obama Should Care About 'Care': An Effective and Equitable Investment Strategy for Job Creation," Economics Public Policy Brief Archive ppb_108, Levy Economics Institute.
    3. Michael F. Royer, 2024. "The Folly of Food Waste amidst Food Insecurity in the United States: A Literature Review," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Shim, David, 2010. "How Signifying Practices Constitute Food (In)security: The Case of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," GIGA Working Papers 122, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    5. Mona Aghabeygi & Filippo Arfini, 2020. "Assessing the Net Import Welfare Impacts of the Rising Global Price of Food in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-10, February.
    6. Karen Cunnyngham, 2010. "State Trends in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Eligibility and Participation Among Elderly Individuals," Mathematica Policy Research Reports e7d1f48339374239a6cbcedcc, Mathematica Policy Research.
    7. Yoshie Sano & Sheila Mammen & Myah Houghten, 2021. "Well-Being and Stability among Low-income Families: A 10-Year Review of Research," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 107-117, July.
    8. Hualin Xie & Yuyang Wen & Yongrok Choi & Xinmin Zhang, 2021. "Global Trends on Food Security Research: A Bibliometric Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, January.
    9. Nord, Mark & Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Andrews, Margaret & Carlson, Steven, 2010. "Household Food Security in the United States, 2009," Economic Research Report 262246, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    10. Lauren A. Clay & Mia A. Papas & Kimberly B. Gill & David M. Abramson, 2018. "Factors Associated with Continued Food Insecurity among Households Recovering from Hurricane Katrina," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-10, August.
    11. Senay Solak & Christina Scherrer & Ahmed Ghoniem, 2014. "The stop-and-drop problem in nonprofit food distribution networks," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 221(1), pages 407-426, October.
    12. Michelle Peterie & Gaby Ramia & Greg Marston & Roger Patulny, 2019. "Emotional Compliance and Emotion as Resistance: Shame and Anger among the Long-Term Unemployed," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(5), pages 794-811, October.
    13. Concetta Russo & Marco Terraneo, 2020. "Mental Well-being Among Workers: A Cross-national Analysis of Job Insecurity Impact on the Workforce," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 421-442, November.
    14. Randy Albelda & Diana Salas Coronado, 2014. "Expanding Women's Healthcare Access in the United States: The Patchwork “Universalism†of the Affordable Care Act," Working Papers 2014_02, University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department.
    15. Zachary Parolin & Sophie Collyer & Megan Curran, 2022. "Absence of Monthly Child Tax Credit Leads to 3.7 Million More Children in Poverty in January 2022," Poverty and Social Policy Brief 20417, Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.
    16. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/4f4eu80n0h8r28g6dadlk02mtb is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Charles Courtemanche & Art Carden & Xilin Zhou & Murugi Ndirangu, 2019. "Do Walmart Supercenters Improve Food Security?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 177-198, June.
    18. Heisig, Jan Paul & Solga, Heike, 2014. "Skills inequalities in 21 countries: PIAAC results for prime-age adults," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Skill Formation and Labor Markets SP I 2014-503, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    19. Swann, Christopher A., 2017. "Household history, SNAP participation, and food insecurity," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-9.
    20. Elena Santiago & Virginia Quick & Melissa Olfert & Carol Byrd-Bredbenner, 2023. "Relationships of Maternal Employment and Work Impact with Weight-Related Behaviors and Home Environments of Mothers and Their School-Age Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(14), pages 1-20, July.
    21. Ayhan GÖRMÜŞ, 2019. "Characteristic of Time-based Underemployment in Turkey: Findings from the Household Labour Force SurveysAbstract:Time-based underemployment is a labour market mismatch that occurs in a circumstance th," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    food insecurity; precarious employment; lone mothers; working poor;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:112504. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.