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Background: National surveillance shows that food insecurity affects ∼1 in 10 Americans each year. Recently, experts have advocated for surveillance of nutrition insecurity alongside food insecurity. Nutrition security refers to the nutritional adequacy of accessible food and factors that impact one's ability to meet food preferences., Objectives: This study presents representative estimates of food insecurity and nutrition insecurity for Los Angeles County, CA, United States; compares predictors of these constructs; and examines whether they independently predict diet-related health outcomes., Methods: In December 2022, a representative sample of Los Angeles County adults participating in the Understanding America Study (N = 1071) was surveyed about household food insecurity and nutrition insecurity over the past 12 months. Data were analyzed in 2023., Results: Reported rates were similar for food insecurity (24%) and nutrition insecurity (25%), but the overlap of these subgroups was less than 60%. Logistic regression models indicated that non-Hispanic Asian individuals had higher odds of nutrition insecurity but not food insecurity. Moreover, nutrition insecurity was a stronger predictor of diabetes compared with food insecurity, and both constructs independently predicted poor mental health., Conclusions: Food and nutrition insecurity affect somewhat different populations. Both constructs are valuable predictors of diet-related health outcomes. Monitoring nutrition insecurity in addition to food insecurity can provide new information about populations with barriers to healthy diets., (Copyright © 2024 American Society for Nutrition. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this study, we employed spatially aggregated population mobility data, generated from mobile phone locations in 2021, to investigate patterns of grocery store visits among residents east and northeast of Downtown Los Angeles, in which 60% of the census tracts had previously been designated as "food deserts". Further, we examined whether the store visits varied with neighborhood sociodemographics and grocery store accessibility. We found that residents averaged 0.4 trips to grocery stores per week, with only 13% of these visits within home census tracts, and 40% within home and neighboring census tracts. The mean distance from home to grocery stores was 2.2 miles. We found that people visited grocery stores more frequently when they lived in neighborhoods with higher percentages of Hispanics/Latinos, renters and foreign-born residents, and a greater number of grocery stores. This research highlights the utility of mobility data in elucidating grocery store use, and factors that may facilitate or be a barrier to store access. The results point to limitations of using geographically constrained metrics of food access like food deserts., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: This study examines the implications of grandparental death for cognitive skills in middle childhood., Method: This study uses data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2479) to estimate ordinary least squares regression models of the associations between grandparental death and subsequent cognitive skills among children in middle childhood., Results: Experiencing a grandparental death between ages 5 and 9 is associated with boys' lower reading, verbal, and math scores at age 9, with associations most notable for Black and Hispanic boys; grandparental death before age 5 has minimal influence on boys' cognitive skills at age 9. There is little indication that grandparental death adversely affects girls' cognitive skills., Conclusion: The numerous and persistent implications of grandparental death for boys' cognitive skills merit greater recognition of grandparental death as a source of family instability, stress, and ultimately inequality in child development., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Introduction: Food insecurity affects one in ten Americans in a typical year; recent U.S. Department of Agriculture data show that this food insecurity rate was stable from 2019 to 2021. However, data from Los Angeles County and other U.S. regions show that food insecurity spiked during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. One reason for this discrepancy may be that food insecurity measures assess experiences over different time frames. This study investigated the discrepancies in food insecurity rates by comparing past-week and past-year food insecurity measures and explored the role of recall bias., Methods: Data were obtained from a representative survey panel of Los Angeles adults (N=1,135). Participants were surveyed about past-week food insecurity eleven times throughout 2021 and once about past-year food insecurity in December 2021. Data were analyzed in 2022., Results: Of the participants who reported past-week food insecurity at any time in 2021, only two thirds also reported past-year food insecurity in December 2021, suggesting that one third of participants under-reported past-year food insecurity. Logistic regression models indicated that three characteristics were significantly associated with under-reporting of past-year food insecurity: having reported past-week food insecurity at fewer survey waves, not reporting recent past-week food insecurity, and having a relatively high household income., Conclusions: These results suggest substantial under-reporting of past-year food insecurity, related to recall bias and social factors. Measuring food insecurity at multiple points throughout the year may help to improve the accuracy of reporting and public health surveillance of this issue., (Copyright © 2023 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

As the intergenerational transmission of family violence is associated with numerous negative outcomes, interventions are needed to interrupt this cycle. Our aim is to review the family violence intervention literature and to assess whether and how interventions interrupt the intergenerational transmission of family violence. Papers about interventions were identified through database searches (PubMed, JSTOR, CINAHL, PsycINFO), supplemented by review of references and relevant review papers. Eligibility criteria included: empirical studies detailing interventions to interrupt or prevent child abuse/maltreatment and/or intimate partner violence, published between January 2000 and August 2020, and written in English. Of the 14 papers included in this narrative review, only 3 explicitly stated that they aimed to break the cycle of family violence; 12 papers came from high-income countries, and 10 focused on individuals, with half focusing on mothers. We identify effective intervention approaches, including long-term one-on-one coaching and home visits to improve parenting. Results demonstrate a dose-response relationship, suggesting the lasting value of increased intervention frequency and duration. We highlight gaps in the literature, including the need for interventions in low-income countries, and those geared toward fathers and neighborhoods/communities. We also examine the many methodological challenges of this work, such as possible biases related to the use of retrospective data, lack of objective outcome measures, and absence of long-term follow-up. Our recommendations for future research include incorporating trauma-informed frameworks, developing standardized definitions and measures to facilitate the comparison of intervention results, and designing more interventions specifically for fathers/husbands and for the prevention of intimate partner violence.

It is well-established that adolescents whose mothers are depressed are themselves more likely to experience internalizing symptoms (e.g., depressive and anxiety symptoms). Even as extensive work shows that internalizing symptoms are more prevalent among adolescent girls compared to boys, it is unclear if the maternal-offspring mental health relationship is gender-neutral or gender-specific: Does maternal depression act as an equalizing force for adolescents' risk of internalizing symptoms, or does it contribute to adolescent gender differences? This study analyzes whether adolescent gender moderates the association between maternal depression and adolescent internalizing symptoms using data from the Year-15 survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which follows a cohort of children born in large U.S. cities, primarily to unmarried parents. This sample of 2159 primary caregiver mothers and adolescent offspring (ages 14-18 years) has numerous social risk factors for internalizing symptoms, affording the opportunity to carefully assess the possibly gendered nature of mother-adolescent linkages. Adjusted ordinary least squares regression models showed that maternal depression is associated with significantly higher adolescent depressive and anxiety symptoms. However, the relationship between maternal depression and adolescent internalizing symptoms is substantially larger for daughters compared to sons. The gendered nature of these concurrent mother-adolescent symptoms highlights the need to consider the effect of gender on other risk processes within families. Moreover, the strong clustering of internalizing symptoms among mothers and daughters highlights the value of prevention and treatment efforts that attend to adult and adolescent mental health simultaneously., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Estimate the prevalence of child sex trafficking (CST) among patients seeking care in multiple healthcare settings; evaluate a short screening tool to identify victims in a healthcare setting., Methods: This cross-sectional observational study involved patients from 16 sites throughout the U.S.: five pediatric emergency departments, six child advocacy centers, and five teen clinics. Participants included English-speaking youth ages 11-17 years. For emergency department sites, inclusion criteria included a chief complaint of sexual violence. Data on several domains were gathered through self-report questionnaires and examiner interview. Main outcomes included prevalence of CST among eligible youth; sensitivity, specificity, positive/negative predictive values, and positive/negative likelihood ratios for a CST screening tool., Results: Eight hundred and ten participants included 91 (11.52%) youth from emergency departments, 395 (48.8%) from child advocacy centers, and 324 (40.0%) from teen clinics. Overall prevalence of CST was 11.1%: 13.2% among emergency department patients, 6.3% among child advocacy center patients, and 16.4% among teen clinic patients, respectively. The screen had a sensitivity, specificity, and positive likelihood ratio of 84.44% (75.28, 91.23), 57.50% (53.80, 61.11), and 1.99% (1.76, 2.25), respectively., Conclusions: This study demonstrates a significant rate of CST among patients presenting to emergency departments (for sexual violence complaints), child advocacy centers, and teen clinics. A six-item screen showed relatively good sensitivity and moderate specificity. Negative predictive value was high. Intervention for a "positive" screen may identify victims and help prevent high-risk youth from becoming victimized. This is one of the first CST screening tools specifically developed and evaluated in the healthcare setting., (Copyright © 2018 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods, are increasing in frequency and scope. Youth exposed to disasters are at risk for developing posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). However, not all youth who report initially elevated PTSS report persistent PTSS that last beyond the first three to six months postdisaster. Thus, it is crucial to understand how and why youth differ in their patterns of PTSS. This study reviewed the literature on children's postdisaster PTSS, evaluating the typical number and types of patterns for children's PTSS trajectories, as well as risk and protective factors predicting trajectory membership. This review identified eight empirical studies on youth PTSS trajectories following natural disasters; these studies included 8,306 children aged 3 to 18 years. All studies identified resilience, recovery, and chronic trajectories. Evidence for a delayed trajectory was mixed. Proportions of children falling into each trajectory varied widely across studies, but overall, resilience was the most prevalent trajectory. These findings were consistent across study factors (i.e., analytic strategy, assessment timing, and study selection criteria). Female gender, disaster exposure, negative coping, and lack of social support were significant risk factors for chronic trajectories across several studies. Future research should combine individual level participant data across studies of children's responses to disasters to better understand PTSS trajectories., (Copyright © 2017 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.)