Role of Resilience in the Relationship Between Food Security and Wellbeing

   There are discussions among scientists on how food security and resilience can effect on the psychological wellbeing of university students. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of food security on the psychological wellbeing of university students by examining the mediating role of resilience. The quantitative survey was used to predict that the recipients’ wellbeing would increase when there is a positive effect on food security and resilience. Moreover, it was also expected that ensuring food security, would increase the resilience of the recipients. Questionnaires were used to collect data from more than 180 students from the largest Higher education institutions and one hundred and thirty-six of them were reliable for analysis. Only students were selected to the sample, because they are one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, especially those who come from regions to big cities like Almaty for the first time. Based on the structural modeling of Smart PLS, the results show that resilience mediates the relationship between Food security and psychological wellbeing. Moreover, mediation analyses supported the hypothesized model. This paper contributes to a more complete understanding of how investment in student’s food security may support or build students psychological wellbeing. Additionally, we contribute to the emerging literature on the mediating effect of resilience. Therefore, there is a need to support activities within and outside of government, as well as the effective participation of stakeholders to provide a coordinated and collaborative response.

1. Mozaffarian, D., Rosenberg, I., & Uauy, R. (2018). History of modern nutrition science — implications for current research, dietary guidelines, and food policy. Bmj, 361. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2392

2. World Health Organization. (2020). The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2020: transforming food systems for affordable healthy diets (Vol. 2020). Food & Agriculture Org... https://doi.org/10.4060/ca9692en

3. Owino, F. O. (2019). Socio-cultural Determinants of Food Security and Consumption Patterns in Kisumu, Kenya. URL: http://ir.jooust.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/8970

4. Food Security. (2006). FAO’s Agriculture and Development Economics Division (ESA). PolicyBrief, 2006 (2), 1-4. https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/faoitaly/documents/pdf/pdf_Food_Security_Cocept_Note.pdf

5. Stephens, E. C., Jones, A. D., & Parsons, D. (2018). Agricultural systems research and global food security in the 21st century: An overview and roadmap for future opportunities. Agricultural Systems, 163, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.01.011

6. Agbadi, P., Urke, H. B., & Mittelmark, M. B. (2017). Household food security and adequacy of child diet in the food insecure region north in Ghana. PloS one, 12 (5), e0177377. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177377

7. Boehm, J. K., Soo, J., Zevon, E. S., Chen, Y., Kim, E. S., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2018). Longitudinal associations between psychological well-being and the consumption of fruits and vegetables. Health Psychology, 37 (10), 959. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000643

8. Islam, M., Akter, R., Sikder, M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2020). Weight-related status and associated predictors with psychological well-being among first-year university students in Bangladesh: a pilot study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00243-x

9. Hernandez Varas, E., Labrador Encinas, F. J., & Mendez Suarez, M. (2019). Psychological capital, work satisfaction and health self-perception as predictors of psychological wellbeing in military personnel. Psicothema. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2019.22

10. Delfabbro, P., Stevenson, J., Malvaso, C., Duong, D., Winefield, H., Winefield, A., & Hammarstrom, A. (2019). Who is doing well: Age 15 predictors of psychological and physical health in young adulthood. Australian psychologist, 54(2), 114-124. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12369

11. Davison, J., Stewart-Knox, B., Connolly, P., Lloyd, K., Dunne, L., & Bunting, B. (2021). Exploring the association between mental wellbeing, health-related quality of life, family affluence and food choice in adolescents. Appetite, 158, 105020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.105020

12. Lee, Y. H., Shelley, M., Liu, C. T., & Chang, Y. C. (2018). Assessing the association of food preferences and self-reported psychological well-being among middle-aged and older adults in contemporary China-results from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(3), 463. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15030463

13. Hong, S.A., & Peltzer, K. (2017). Dietary behaviour, psychological well-being and mental distress among adolescents in Korea. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 11 (1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-017-0194-z

14. Gundersen, C., & Ziliak, J. P. (2018). Food insecurity research in the United States: Where we have been and where we need to go. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 40 (1), 119-135. https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/ppx058

15. Graham, R., Hodgetts, D., Stolte, O., & Chamberlain, K. (2018). Food insecurity in urban New Zealand. The case of the Kopa family. Journal of Poverty, 22 (5), 379-397. https://doi.org/10.1080/10875549.2017.1419533

16. Nurgazy S., Seitkaziyeva A., Simanavicienе Z., Rakhmatullayeva D. (2022). How Food Security Influence Well-Being: A Moderated Mediation Model. Kazahstan-Spektr [Kazakhstan-Spectrum], 101 (1). https://doi.org/10.52536/2415-8216.2022-1.07

17. Kassim, E. S., Osman, I., Hairuddin, H., Hassan, F. H., & Asa’ari, M. H. Examining Food Bank Attitude, Food Security, Availability to Basic Needs and Psychological Wellbeing: From The Perspectives of University Students as Food Bank Recipients, (2021) [updated October 11, 2021; cited March 12, 2021]. Available: https://www.majcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Vol-26-2021-Paper-1.pdf

18. Bazerghi, C., McKay, F. H., & Dunn, M. (2016). The role of food banks in addressing food insecurity: a systematic review. Journal of community health, 41 (4), 732-740. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-015-0147-5

19. Pourmotabbed, A., Moradi, S., Babaei, A., Ghavami, A., Mohammadi, H., Jalili, C., ... & Miraghajani, M. (2020). Food insecurity and mental health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Public health nutrition, 23 (10), 1778-1790. https://doi.org/10.1017/S136898001900435X

20. Gartaula, H., Patel, K., Johnson, D., Devkota, R., Khadka, K., & Chaudhary, P. (2017). From food security to food wellbeing: examining food security through the lens of food wellbeing in Nepal’s rapidly changing agrarian landscape. Agriculture and human values, 34 (3), 573-589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-016-9740-1

21. Lachance, L., Martin, M. S., Kaduri, P., Godoy-Paiz, P., Ginieniewicz, J., Tarasuk, V., & McKenzie, K. (2014). Food insecurity, diet quality, and mental health in culturally diverse adolescents. Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care. https://doi.org/10.1108/EIHSC-02-2013-0002

22. Hanbazaza, M., Ball, G. D., Farmer, A. P., Maximova, K., Farahbakhsh, J., & Willows, N. D. (2017). A comparison of characteristics and food insecurity coping strategies between international and domestic postsecondary students using a food bank located on a university campus. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 78 (4), 208-211. https://doi.org/10.3148/cjdpr-2017-012

23. Wald, J., Taylor, S., Asmundson, G. J., Jang, K. L., & Stapleton, J. Literature review of concepts: Psychological resiliency, (2006) [updated May 05, 2006; cited March 13, 2021]. Available: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674371105600504

24. EU. Communication from the commission to the European Parliament and the council. The EU Approach to resilience: Learning from Food Security Crises, (2012) [updated September 12, 2006; cited March 12, 2021]. Available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52012DC0586&from=EN

25. Ansah, I. G. K., Gardebroek, C., & Ihle, R. (2019). Resilience and householdfood security: a review of concepts, methodological approaches and empirical evidence. Food Security, 11 (6), 1187-1203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-00968-1

26. Alinovi, L., D’errico, M., Mane, E., and Romano, D. (2010). Livelihoods strategies and household resilience to food insecurity: An empirical analysis to Kenya. In “Conference on “promoting resilience through social protection in sub-Saharan Africa”, organised by the European report of development in Dakar, Senegal”, pp. 28-30. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.324.4682&rep=rep1&type=pdf

27. Polizzi, C., Lynn, S. J., & Perry, A. (2020). Stress and coping in the time of COVID-19: Pathways to resilience and recovery. Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 17 (2), 59. https://doi.org/10.36131/CN20200204

28. Mehta, M. H., Grover, R. L., Di Donato, T. E., & Kirkhart, M. W. (2019). Examining the positive cognitive triad: A link between resilience and well-being. Psychological reports, 122 (3), 776-788. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294118773722

29. Srivastava, K. (2011). Positive mental health and its relationship with resilience. Industrial psychiatry journal, 20(2), 75. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972- 6748.102469

30. Mowbray, H. (2020). In Beijing, coronavirus 2019-nCoV has created a siege mentality. Bmj, 368. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m516

31. Smith, G. D., & Yang, F. (2017). Stress, resilience and psychological well-being in Chinese undergraduate nursing students. Nurse Education Today, 49, 90–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2016.10.004

32. Souri, H., & Hasanirad, T. (2011). Relationship between resilience, optimism and psychological well-being in students of medicine. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 1541–1544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.299

33. Vansteenkiste, M., Ryan, R. M., & Soenens, B. (2020). Basic psychological need theory: Advancements, critical themes, and future directions. Motivation and emotion, 44 (1), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-019-09818-1

34. World Health Organization. (1998). Wellbeing measures in primary health care/the Dep Care Project: report on a WHO meeting: Stockholm, Sweden, 12–13 February 1998 (No. WHO/EURO: 1998-4234-43993-62027). World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/349766/WHO-EURO-1998-4234-43993-62027-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

35. National Research Council. (2005). Measuring food insecurity and hunger: phase 1 report. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/11227.

36. Smith, B. W., Dalen, J., Wiggins, K., Tooley, E., Christopher, P., & Bernard, J. (2008). The brief resilience scale: Assessing the ability to bounce back. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15 (3), 194–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705500802222972

37. Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., Sarstedt, M., & Thiele, K.O. (2017). Mirror, mirror on the wall: a comparative evaluation of composite-based structural equation modeling methods. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(5), 616-632. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-017-0517-x