Influence of Food Security Status on Mental Health and Cognitive Abilities of Adolescents

By : Amit Kumar, Damodar Suar, Bimal Kishore Sahoo

Page No: 308-316

Abstract
This study examines the influence of food security status on the mental health and remind cognitive abilities of adolescents and subgroups of younger (10-14 years) and older (15-19 years) adolescents in two Indian villages in Bihar (India) under the capability framework during COVID-19. Younger and older adolescents participated 100 each from food-insecure and food-secure families were randomly selected from 302 and 198 households respectively. Mental health was assessed on anxiety and depression, and cognitive abilities on planning and information integration. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA. On mental health, food-insecure adolescents were found to be more anxious and depressed than food-secure adolescents, and younger adolescents were more anxious and depressed than older adolescents. On cognitive abilities, food-secure adolescents completed the design configuration and auditory sequence faster than food-insecure adolescents. Older adolescents performed better than younger adolescents on design configuration. Thus, food security decreases adolescents’ anxiety and depression along with improving their performance in information integration. 

Authors :
Amit Kumar : Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal and IIM Ahmedabad, Gujrat, India. 
Damodar Suar : Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal and KIIT Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, India. 
Bimal Kishore Sahoo : Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/PROD.2024.65.03.8