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Leveraging Social, Environmental, and Policy Priorities to Address Food Security and Diet Quality Outcomes (Oral Session 13)

(OR13-07-25) Maternal Substance Use Is Associated With Child Food Security Status Among Homeless Young Mothers and Their Children

Monday, June 2, 2025
11:12 AM – 11:24 AM ET
Location: S220 E-G
Emerging Leaders in Nutrition Science Poster Competition

    Presenting Author(s)

  • JD

    Janaki C. Dave, BS, MS (she/her/hers)

    Graduate Student
    The Ohio State University
    Zionsville, Indiana, United States

    Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

    • Co-Author(s)

  • IH

    Irene Hatsu, PhD, RD

    Associate Professor, Department of Human Sciences
    The Ohio State University
    Columbus, Ohio, United States

  • NS

    Natasha Slesnick, PhD

    The Ohio State University, United States

Objectives: The experience of homelessness imposes a disproportional burden on young mothers relative to their peers, particularly related to substance use disorder (SUD), mental health challenges, food insecurity, and poor diet quality. Limited studies have documented the impact of these burdens on children experiencing homelessness alongside their young mothers. This study examined the relationships of maternal substance use with child food security and nutrition risk.

Methods: Data are from a housing and support services randomized control trial among young SUD mothers experiencing homelessness and their children in their care (n=113) were cross sectionally analyzed. Maternal substance use was assessed using the Form-90 Substance Use questionnaire. Child food security status was assessed using the USDA 18-item food security survey module, with higher score indicating worse food insecurity. Similarly, child nutritional risk was assessed using the 17-item Nutrition Screening Tool for Every Preschooler questionnaire, where higher scores indicate high nutritional risk. Linear and logistic regression determined the associations of maternal substance use with child nutritional risk and child food security status, respectively. Both regression models controlled for treatment allocation, assessment timepoints, monthly income, and age at first homelessness.

Results: The mean age of mothers and their children were 22.19 ± 1.99 years and 2.81 ± 1.90 years, respectively. The most used drugs by mothers were marijuana (88.29%), alcohol (68.47%), tobacco (62.16%), opiates (14.42%), and cocaine (3.60%). 48.67% of participants used at least 3 or more substances. 43.24% of children were at moderate to high nutritional risk, and 32.14% of them were food insecure. After adjusting for covariates, maternal substance use was associated with child food security status (OR=1.010, 95% CI [1.002, 1.018], p=0.017), but not with child nutritional risk (β=.002, 95% CI [-.006, .010], p=0.609).

Conclusions: Nutritional vulnerability and food insecurity are prevalent among children of young homeless mothers with SUD, the latter being associated with maternal substance use. Children living with SUD young mothers should be targeted with interventions aimed at improving food insecurity.

Funding Sources: NIH-NIDA Diversity Supplement