Description

FSENGHCH indicates whether or not a child/children (age 17 or under) in the household did not eat enough because the family could not afford food in the past year. This question is only asked in households with children under 17. Households are also asked whether this occurred in the past 30 days FSENGHCM.

This question is one of the 8 items used to construct the 12-month child food security scale, FSSTATUSC and is also used to determine household food security status FSSTATUS. Only households with incomes below 185% of poverty and higher income households that indicate food access problems in response to preliminary screening questions are asked FSENGHCH and other questions in the Food Sufficiency and Food Security section of the supplement.

Comparability

This variable is generally comparable over available years since 1995, and the universe is generally consistent since 1998. Prior to 1998, the screening procedures that determined which responding households were screened into the food security assessment changed each year. Researchers will need to use FSSCREEN to identify a consistent analytic sample when including data before 1998. In 2000, households in months-in-sample 8 were asked an experimental version of this question and are not included here.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables