College Student Food and Housing Insecurity: Students’ Perceived Determinants, Consequences, and Resilience

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study was designed to explore contributing factors to and consequences of college students’ food and housing insecurity as well as protective factors for retention. We conducted an inductive thematic analysis of interviews with 13 demographically diverse students at a public university who had experienced recent food insecurity and/or homelessness. Results revealed themes of the dynamic experiences of food and housing insecurity, the interplay of these with transportation, and risk and protective factors contributing to their resilience as indicated by persistence in college. We provide policy and practice recommendations based on the findings and directions for future research.KEYWORDS: College student food insecuritycollege student homelessnessstudent well-being AcknowledgementsWe extend our gratitude to the individuals who participated in this study by openly sharing their personal challenges and triumphs as college students. We also acknowledge Indira Gutierrez, Paige Swanson, Shivani Surati, and Brandon Garrick for their assistance with data collection as interviewers and Anna Gillespie and Hailey Bramley for their assistance with transcribing.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data sharing statementThe data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.