The Journal of Nutrition

Community and International Nutrition

Financial Management Skills Are Associated

with Food Insecurity in a Sample of Households
with Children in the United States1,2
Craig G. Gundersen3* and Steven B. Garasky4
3
Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL; and 4IMPAQ International, LLC, Columbia, MD

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Abstract
Food insecurity is one of the leading public health challenges facing children in the United States today. Reducing food
insecurity and its attendant consequences requires an understanding of the determinants of food insecurity. Although
previous work has greatly advanced our understanding of these determinants, the role of one of the oft-speculated
important determinants of food insecurity, household financial management skills, has not been considered. To address
this research lacuna, we use a recently conducted survey, the Survey of Household Finances and Childhood Obesity, that
has information on specific financial management practices, impressions of financial management skills, and householdsÕ
food insecurity. The sample included 904 households with children. Within this sample, 19.3% were food insecure and, for
our central financial management skill variable, the mean value was 3.55 on a 5-point scale. Probit regression models
estimated the probability of a household being food insecure as conditional on financial management skills and other
covariates. We found a large and significant inverse relationship between a respondentÕs use of specific financial
management practices and food insecurity and between a respondentÕs confidence in his or her financial management
skills and food insecurity. That is, households with greater financial management abilities are less likely to be food
insecure. This finding also holds when the sample is restricted to households with incomes <200% of the poverty line.
These results suggest that improving householdsÕ financial management skills has the potential to reduce food insecurity
in the United States. J. Nutr. 142: 1865–1870, 2012.

Introduction
Food insecurity is one of the leading public health challenges
facing children in the United States today. In 2010, about 1 in 5
children lived in food-insecure households as defined at the
household level (1). These rates are for the full population of
children; the rates among low-income children are over twice as
high. The problem of food insecurity has become particularly
acute in recent years, including an unprecedented increase of
33% for households with children from 2007 to 2008, an
increase that had not substantively dissipated by 2010.
In addition to the mere existence of food insecurity in the
US, an extensive literature has demonstrated the health conse-
quences associated with food insecurity for children. Among
other findings, recent work has demonstrated that children in
families suffering from food insecurity are more likely to have
fair or poor general health (2–6), psychosocial problems (7),
frequent stomachaches and headaches (8), cognitive problems
(9), asthma (5), instances of oral health problems (10), increased
odds of being hospitalized (11), greater propensities to have seen
1
Supported by the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture grant no.
2009-35215-05182.
2
Author disclosures: C. Gundersen and S. Garasky, no conflicts of interest.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cggunder@illinois.edu.
ã 2012 American Society for Nutrition.
Manuscript received March 29, 2012. Initial review completed June 3, 2012. Revision accepted August 20, 2012
First published online September 5, 2012; doi:10.3945/jn.112.162214.
a psychologist (8), behavior problems (12), reduced intakes of
important nutrients (13), worse developmental outcomes
(14,15), impaired mental proficiency (16), and higher levels of
iron deficiency with anemia (17).
Reducing food insecurity and its attendant consequences
requires an understanding of the determinants of food insecurity.
Work on food insecurity has demonstrated that, e.g., households
with low incomes, renters, and single parent households are all
more likely to be food insecure, even after controlling for other
factors. (For recent research showing that some or all of these
factors matter, see, e.g., 18–22.) This previous work has greatly
advanced our understanding, but significant gaps remain. In
particular, within the population of those more likely to be food
insecure, millions of children escape food insecurity while,
within the population that is less likely to be food insecure,
millions of children fall into food insecurity (23). Within the
dimension of income, e.g., almost one-half of poor households
are food secure whereas ;1 in 10 non-poor households are food
insecure. In other words, many households that should arguably
be food insecure based on income alone are food secure and vice-
versa.
That some households are food secure despite their lower
incomes, and other households are food insecure despite their
higher incomes, has often been ascribed to factors that are
1865
unobserved by the researcher (23). In other words, there are
variables that are thought to influence food insecurity that are
not collected within a data set. In this paper, we utilize a data set
that has variables that are, in other data sets, unobserved but are
often posited as an explanation for why some households escape
food insecurity while observationally similar households do not.
Namely, we analyze whether households with better financial
management skills are less likely to be food insecure, conditional
on other factors. There are 2 central reasons why this may be the
case. First, those with more limited financial management skills
may not be optimizing their food consumption, given income
and prices. The skills held by those with better financial
management skills may include identifying sales and taking
advantage of discounts (e.g., food club memberships, cou-
pons). Second, those with more limited financial manage-
ment skills may be less able to weather negative financial
shocks. These shocks can take the form of declines in income,
unexpected necessary consumption expenditures, or combina-
tions of both. As shown in (24–26), an important determinant of
food insecurity is negative economic shock. It may be the case
that some households are more skilled at identifying supple-
mental resources (e.g., assistance programs) to help them
weather these shocks. In addition to responses to these shocks,
households with better financial management skills may have
also been able to save more money to serve as an emergency
fund.
To understand the influence of financial management skills
on food insecurity, we use a recently conducted survey that has
information on financial management skills, food insecurity, and
other relevant factors. Our results indicate that for 2 of our 3
measures of financial management skills, those who are better at
managing household finances are less likely to be food insecure,
even after controlling for income and other factors.
Participants and Methods
Participants. Data for this study were from the Survey of Household
Finances and Childhood Obesity, a sample survey of households with
children between the ages of 2 and 17 y conducted from 2009 to 2010.
Along with a focus on obesity (and hence the focus on children older than
2 y; there are not well-established measures of obesity for children
younger than 2 y), another focus of the survey was on households
experiencing financial stress. As a consequence, the survey sampling
frame was composed of low-income metro and non-metro counties
(poverty rates >20%) in 3 Midwestern states: Illinois, Iowa, and
Michigan. Of particular importance for this paper, the survey included
household demographic information shown to be associated with food
insecurity in previous studies (e.g., income, race/ethnicity), the USDA 6-
item food insecurity scale, and measures of financial management skills.
Data were collected in 2 stages: 1) a telephone interview involving the
majority of data collection and 2) a mailed survey to gather the measured
height and weight of children in participating households. Given the
emphasis of this study, we used data only from the telephone survey.
Surveyors interviewed the adult in the household deemed most know-
ledgeable about household finances. Thus, our financial management
skill measure may overstate the overall financial management skill of all
household members. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only survey
that has information on both food insecurity and financial management
skills.
The sample was garnered through an initial listing of 12,223
telephone numbers. Of these numbers, 2523 were not in service or were
business numbers; 2107 refused to answer screening questions to
determine whether there were children present; 142 were eligible but
refused to participate in the survey; 6437 were not eligible because there
were no children between 2 and 17 y; and 201 had other nonresponses.
The remaining 954 (a response rate of 73.5% of those who passed the
1866 Gundersen and Garasky
initial screen) households were in our sample. After taking out 50
observations that were missing one or more variables used in our
analyses, our sample was composed of 904 households.
Variables. Food insecurity, our dependent variable, was measured using
a 6-item scale, which is a subset of the full set of 18 questions on the Core
Food Security Module used to derive food insecurity measures in the US
[see, e.g., (1) for more on the Core Food Security Module]. The sum of
affirmative responses was then constructed. If the resulting value was
$2, a household was defined as food insecure [for a discussion of this
measure, see (27)].
Our data set included questions about financial skills that can be
characterized under the 2 broad headings of ‘‘specific financial manage-
ment practices’’ and ‘‘impressions of financial management skills.’’ Using
the specific financial management practices questions, we constructed an
index based on the questions and definitions of ‘‘affirmative response’’
found in Table 1. This index ranged from 0 to 5.
Along with these measures of specific financial management prac-
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tices, respondents were also asked 2 questions about their impressions of
financial management skills. The first measure concerns the respondentÕs
perception of their own financial management abilities. Individuals who
indicated they were ‘‘confident’’ or ‘‘very confident’’ in their ability to
manage their householdÕs finances were assigned a value of 1 for this
measure, while those that were ‘‘somewhat confident,’’ ‘‘a little
confident,’’ or ‘‘not confident’’ were assigned a value of 0. Similarly,
respondents were asked to describe their level of financial skill. This
measure received a value of 1 if the individual indicated they had
‘‘intermediate’’ or ‘‘advanced’’ financial skills and 0 if they individual
indicated that they had ‘‘beginning’’ or ‘‘no’’ financial skills. Although the
questions posed regarding specific financial management practices and
impressions of financial management skills were distinct in their
inquiries, they are clearly related. As a consequence, we entered them
separately into our estimations. Each of the questions used for these
analyses has been widely used in other studies (28–33).
We employed a standard set of covariates that has been commonly
used in the food insecurity literature [for a review of the determinants,
see (23)]. Namely, we included variables reflecting the education level of
the respondent (high school graduate/GED recipient vs. non-graduate
from high school), household income (defined as the midpoint of income
brackets: $5000 intervals from 0 to $30,000; $10,000 intervals from
$30,000 to $60,000; $60,000 to $75,000; $75,000 to $100,000;
>$100,000), health insurance status (everyone with insurance vs. not
everyone with insurance), race (black vs. non-black), ethnicity (Hispanic
vs. non-Hispanic), household size, and marital status (currently married
vs. currently not married).
Statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the total
sample and then by food insecure/food secure. This breakdown was
further done on a sample composed of households with incomes <200%
of the poverty line. To test for the significance of differences between
food-secure and food-insecure households, x2 tests were used. Values in
the results are listed as means 6 SE or percent. Probit regression models
TABLE 1 Five-item food financial management skills scale1
1. ``How often do you (or your spouse/partner) review your bills for accuracy?``
Responses: Never, rarely, sometimes, usually, always.
``
2. ``How often do you (or your spouse/partner) pay your bills on time? Responses:
Never, rarely, sometimes, usually, always.
3. ``How often do you (or your spouse/partner) pay your credit card bills in full to avoid
``
interest charges? Responses: Never, rarely, sometimes, usually, always, do not
have credit card.
4. ``How often do you (or your spouse/partner) use a spending plan or budget? ``
Responses: Never, rarely, sometimes, usually, always.
5. ``How often do you (or your spouse/partner) review income and expenses before
``
making large purchases? Responses: Never, rarely, sometimes, usually, always.
1
Responses in bold indicate an affirmative response.
were estimated to assess the association between food insecurity and
financial management skills, controlling for other factors (i.e., the list of
confounders above). The bivariate comparisons and probit regression
models were conducted on the full sample and for those with incomes
<200% of the poverty line. We considered this more limited sample
insofar as food insecurity rates are substantially higher among low-
income households (1). In the results, we presented probabilities of being
food insecure depending on the responses to ‘‘confidence in financial
management ability.’’ When this variable takes on a value of 1, this
probability is calculated by taking the standard cumulative normal
distribution of the linear combination of the mean values of each
covariate multiplied by the relevant coefficient along with the coefficient
for the covariate of interest. The probability when it takes on a value of 0
is calculated similarly. In light of the clustering of observations at the
county level in this data set, we controlled for this clustering in our
models. All analyses were conducted using Stata version 11 for Windows
(34).
were more likely to have better skills as defined for each of the
measures found in Table 1 (e.g., being more likely to pay bills on
time); and food-secure households had higher interpretations of
their financial management skills. Even when we restricted the
sample to those with incomes <200% of the poverty line, the
strong association of financial management skill levels with food
security remained.
In Table 3, we display our probit estimates for the full
sample. In column 1, as a baseline for comparison, we display
the results without any financial management skill measures.
The only significant determinant was income. This factor was
negatively associated with food insecurity, as expected. In
column 2, we introduce the 5-item financial management index.
As expected, this was negatively associated with food insecurity.
The effects were quite large. Assessing the effect in terms of
income, for the 5-item scale, a 1-unit increase was roughly

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Results
Table 2 contains descriptive statistics. In columns 1 and 4, the
results are displayed for all households and households with
incomes <200% of the poverty line, respectively. We display
comparisons between food-insecure households and food-secure
households in columns 2 and 3 (for all households) and in
columns 5 and 6 (for households with incomes <200% of the
poverty line).
As found in previous studies, for the full sample, households
headed by a high school graduate or a married couple with
health insurance and higher incomes were more likely to be food
secure. Once we restricted the sample to those with incomes
<200% of the poverty line, only differences by marital status and
income remained.
Turning to financial management skills, when looking at all
households, food-secure households were more likely to be
better managers of finances. This can be seen over 3 dimensions:
food-secure households had a higher mean value for the specific
financial management practices index; food-secure households
equivalent to having ;$370 more per month in income {i.e.,
[(0.115/0.258)/12] 3 10,000}. When respondentsÕ impressions
of financial management skills was used [columns 3 and 4], both
measures were negative, albeit only the measure that indicates
whether a ‘‘person is confident in their financial management
skills’’ is significant. The effect in that case was large though;
someone who was confident in their financial management skills
has a 13.7% probability of being food insecure, all else equal,
while someone who was not confident in their skills has a 30.7%
probability. We also emphasize that the effect of financial
management skills holds even when education of the respondent
was included. Thus, one cannot assume that educational
attainment was portraying financial management skills.
In Table 4, the results of our probit model are displayed for
the sample of those with incomes <200% of the poverty line. As
is not surprising, given the truncation of income and the results
in Table 3, the effects of the variables were nonsignificant, as
seen in column 1. What is interesting, though, is that the effect of
the financial management skill variables were similar in signif-
icance and size even when the sample was restricted (columns 2–
4). For example, someone who was confident in their financial

TABLE 2 Descriptive statistics of households with children aged 2–17 y in households with all income levels and with incomes levels
,200% of the poverty line1

All income levels Income ,200% of poverty line

All Food insecure Food secure All Food insecure Food secure

n (unweighted) 904 174 730 280 120 160

Food insecure, % 19.3 100.0 0.0 42.9 100.0 0.0
Hispanic, % 3.6 3.5 3.6 5.4 3.3 6.9
Black, % 7.9 11.6 7.0 15.7 15.0 16.3
Respondent is high school graduate, % 96.2 90.1 97.6** 89.3 86.7 91.3
Respondent is married, % 76.9 54.7 82.2** 49.3 42.5 54.4*
Household has health insurance, % 87.4 75.0 90.4** 70.7 68.3 72.5
RespondentÕs age, y 42.15 6 0.32 41.95 6 0.80 42.20 6 0.34 41.86 6 0.67 42.34 6 1.02 41.51 6 0.89
Household size 4.09 6 0.04 4.04 6 0.11 4.11 6 0.05 4.35 6 0.10 4.19 6 0.14 4.48 6 0.14
Household income, $/10,000 5.98 6 0.10 3.37 6 0.15 6.60 6 0.11** 2.58 6 0.08 2.31 6 0.11 2.69 6 0.10*
Financial management index, 5-item 3.55 6 0.04 3.33 6 0.09 3.61 6 0.04** 3.50 6 0.07 3.30 6 0.12 3.64 6 0.09*
Review bills for accuracy, % 73.8 69.8 74.8 73.2 70.0 75.6
Pay bills on time, % 90.5 73.8 94.4** 79.3 69.2 86.9**
Pay credit card bill in full to avoid interest, % 60.2 57.0 60.9 64.6 61.7 66.9
Use budget, % 47.5 53.5 46.0 52.5 51.7 53.1
Review income and expenses before large purchases, % 83.4 79.1 84.4 80.0 77.5 81.9
Confidence in financial management ability, % 71.9 43.6 78.7** 58.9 36.7 75.6**
Self reported financial skill level, % 87.5 77.3 90.0** 78.6 75.8 80.6
1
Values are means 6 SE or percent. Asterisks indicate different from food insecure: *P # 0.05; ** P # 0.01.

Financial management skills and food insecurity 1867

TABLE 3 Risk of food insecurity as a function of financial management skill levels and other covariates for of households with
children aged 2–17 y in households1

Hispanic 20.353 (20.935, 0.228) 20.362 (20.960, 0.237) 20.352 (20.954, 0.249) 20.357 (20.943, 0.229)
Black 20.161 (20.533, 0.212) 20.194 (20.569, 0.182) 20.204 (20.588, 0.181) 20.174 (20.549, 0.201)
Respondent is high school graduate 20.373 (20.850, 0.105) 20.342 (20.818, 0.134) 20.385 (20.849, 0.078) 20.338 (20.819, 0.143)
Respondent is married 20.005 (20.285, 0.274) 0.006 (20.274, 0.287) 0.044 (20.247, 0.334) 0.003 (20.278, 0.285)
Household has health insurance 20.120 (20.420, 0.179) 20.104 (20.402, 0.194) 20.124 (20.420, 0.173) 20.127 (20.426, 0.173)
RespondentÕs age 20.002 (20.013, 0.008) 20.002 (20.013, 0.009) 0.000 (20.011, 0.011) 20.002 (20.013, 0.008)
Household size 0.031 (20.053, 0.115) 0.023 (20.062, 0.109) 0.012 (20.072, 0.097) 0.030 (20.054, 0.115)
Household income 20.255 (20.302, 20.207)** 20.258 (20.306, 20.210)** 20.244 (20.293, 20.195)** 20.251 (20.299, 20.203)**
Financial management index 20.115 (20.206, 20.024)*
Confidence in financial management ability 20.746 (20.967, –0.524)**
Self-reported financial skill level 20.180 (20.479, 0.120)
Constant 0.851 (0.060, 1.642)* 1.246 (0.392, 2.100)** 1.224 (0.423, 2.026)** 0.961 (0.135, 1.787)*
Number of observations 904 904 903 903

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1
Values are probit coefficient estimates (95%CI). Asterisks indicate different from 0: **P # 0.01; * P # 0.05.

management skills had a 26.2% probability of being food
insecure, all else equal, while someone who was not confident in
their skills had a 66.4% probability.
Discussion
Food insecurity continues to be a serious problem in the United
States and, in recent years, the problem has become even more
serious. Concerns regarding food insecurity exist due to both the
magnitude of the problem—almost 50 million Americans are
food insecure—and the attendant health consequences. To
alleviate food insecurity, one must understand who is most likely
to be food insecure and, once this is ascertained, aid can be
directed to those persons.
A vast literature has examined food insecurity and, in a broad
sense, we have a good understanding of who is more or less
likely to be food insecure. In particular, persons with low
incomes are more likely to be food insecure. However, among
poor households, millions are food secure whereas among
households that are not poor, millions are food insecure. This is
perhaps counterintuitive insofar as those who are poor are
assumed to have insufficient resources to purchase basic neces-
sities and those who are not poor are assumed to have sufficient
resources for these purchases. In response to an inability to
accurately ascertain who is at greatest risk of food insecurity,
various alternative determinants have been proposed.
There has been speculation that good financial management
skills may help households avoid food insecurity and, conversely,
less-than-effective financial management skills may cause other
households to be food insecure. Testing this speculation has been
hampered by the lack of information about financial manage-
ment skills on surveys that also included information on food
insecurity.
In this study, we addressed this limitation through the use of a
new data set that has information on financial management
skills, food insecurity, and other relevant factors. We found a
profound impact of financial management skills on food
insecurity in the United States, even after controlling for other
relevant factors. Whether measured through reports of specific
financial management practices or confidence in oneÕs financial
management skills, those with superior financial management
abilities are substantially less likely to be food insecure compared
with those without such abilities. This finding holds whether we
consider all income levels or just those households with low
incomes. Along with uncovering a new, previously unexplored
factor, these results also help in further elucidating a variable that
heretofore has been one of the ‘‘unobserved variables’’ thought to
influence food insecurity.

TABLE 4 Risk of food insecurity as a function of financial management skill levels and other covariates for of households with children
aged 2–17 y in households with incomes ,200% of the poverty line1

Hispanic 20.511 (21.180, 0.159) 20.582 (21.260, 0.096) 20.694 (21.419, 0.031) 20.512 (21.188, 0.163)
Black 20.181 (20.610, 0.248) 20.235 (20.671, 0.200) 20.316 (20.768, 0.136) 20.195 (20.628, 0.237)
Respondent is high school graduate 20.379 (20.872, 0.114) 20.337 (20.830, 0.156) 20.443 (20.932, 0.047) 20.361 (20.859, 0.138)
Respondent is married 20.158 (20.528, 0.212) 20.152 (20.524, 0.219) 20.132 (20.529, 0.264) 20.154 (20.525, 0.218)
Household has health insurance 20.117 (20.457, 0.223) 20.109 (20.449, 0.232) 20.209 (20.564, 0.147) 20.125 (20.466, 0.217)
RespondentÕs age 0.002 (20.012, 0.016) 0.002 (20.012, 0.016) 0.007 (20.008, 0.021) 0.002 (20.012, 0.016)
Household size 20.026 (20.136, 0.083) 20.034 (20.144, 0.075) 20.054 (20.161, 0.053) 20.027 (20.136, 0.082)
Household income 20.056 (20.206, 0.094) 20.058 (20.207, 0.092) 0.007 (20.145, 0.160) 20.050 (20.200, 0.101)
Financial management index 20.155 (20.279, 20.030)*
Confidence in financial management ability 21.103 (21.424, 20.782)**
Self-reported financial skill level 20.106 (20.480, 0.269)
Constant 0.545 (20.372, 1.462) 1.092 (0.077, 2.107)* 1.080 (0.132, 2.027)* 0.605 (20.339, 1.549)
Number of observations 288 288 287 288
1
Values are probit coefficient estimates (95%CI). Asterisks indicate different from 0: ** P # 0.01; * P # 0.05.

1868 Gundersen and Garasky

 Given the magnitude of the effect of financial management
ability on food insecurity, policymakers and program adminis-
trators may wish to consider how these skills can be enhanced.
We consider 3 avenues to do so. First, the USDA Expended Food
and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) teaches a wide
variety of skills related to cooking and nutrition. Relevant to the
findings from this paper, EFNEP also teaches financial manage-
ment skills and studies have shown that the teaching of these
skills has demonstrated successes (35,36) and, more broadly,
education provided to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Pro-
gram (SNAP) recipients has been found to lead to reductions in
food insecurity (37). Expansion of the availability of EFNEP and
the continued inclusion of financial management skills may be
especially effective. Second, a similar argument for inclusion of
financial management skill training holds for education pro-
grams within the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for
Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Third, along with
financial management skills being included or potentially
included through food assistance program participation, there
are a number of existing financial education programs available,
including many directed toward low-income households. Re-
search has demonstrated that these programs are successful in
improving financial literacy (38). In light of the implications of
this study, the continued funding of these programs and possible
expansions may be considered.
We now consider 5 limitations associated with the results of
this research, each of which can perhaps be addressed in future
research. We also discuss one other area for future research.
First, the causality with respect to confidence in oneÕs financial
management skills may go in both directions. In this work, we
implicitly assumed that superior, self-assessed, financial man-
agement skills influence food insecurity rather than vice-versa.
However, for at least some respondents, being food insecure may
cause persons to doubt their financial abilities. This may be at
least partly responsible for the large negative effect we found for
this variable. Future researchers may wish to consider this issue
of causality. (For the specific financial management practices
measure, though, we find it less plausible that the direction of the
effect would go the other direction.) Second, a wider array of
questions on financial management skills could elucidate more
about why these skills matter. Along with a wider array of
questions, alternative specifications of indices constructed for
the specific financial management practices could be pursued.
Third, as discussed above, the food insecurity measures are
based on self-reports as are the measures of financial manage-
ment skills. As such, both suffer from social desirability bias and
one would imagine that the levels of food insecurity are biased
downwards and the financial management skills may be biased
upwards. Fourth, the sample is based on the population in 3
states and, within those states, counties with high poverty rates.
Research considering other states and/or counties with a wider
array of income levels may yield different results. Fifth, the
impact of financial management skills on other outcomes could
be examined. Of particular importance may be the effect of these
skills on the stress faced by households, especially lower-income
households, given that stress has been linked to obesity (39).
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Rebecca Burgstahler and Elizabeth Ignowski
for excellent research assistance. C.G.G. and S.B.G. jointly desi-
gned the research project, wrote the paper, and had primary
responsibility for final content; C.G.G. analyzed the data and
performed statistical analysis. Both authors read and approved
the final manuscript.
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