Understanding children's lived experiences of food insecurity: a study of primary school-aged children in Leeds.

This thesis explores what it means for British primary school-aged children to experience food insecurity. Food and how we access it is key to our physical and emotional health and also enables or excludes us from social relationships. Food insecurity occurs when people do not have enough money; it is not a discrete phenomenon but is part of being in poverty.
Since 2019, data collected in the Department for Work and Pensions Family Resources Survey tell us how many children are living in households experiencing food insecurity in the United Kingdom. However, we know very little of what this actually signifies for the children and their daily lives. Taking a child-centred approach, and via focus groups and one-to-one interviews with nine to eleven year-olds in Leeds, this thesis contributes to knowledge on this issue by providing a rich picture of how pre-high school children are impacted by living in a household experiencing food insecurity.
The thesis investigates the impact of living in an economically precarious household on children’s diets, their mental health, and their social interactions. Contemporary dominant narratives relating to poverty which shape attitudes towards people experiencing food insecurity are explored. The findings demonstrate how children and their families engage in multiple strategies to try and achieve as ‘normal’ a diet as possible, and how the precariousness of the household’s economic status has a significant negative effect on children’s mental health and their social interactions.
These findings indicate the need to expand our conceptualisation of child food insecurity to ensure that the harmful impact of even ‘mild’ household food insecurity on children’s mental health is sufficiently recognised, measured and tackled. This thesis argues and illustrates that food-based policy responses will not solve the problem, and that the only solution is a consistent and adequate household income.