Advisory Committee Chair
Stacey Cofield
Advisory Committee Members
Erika Austin
Larrell Wilkinson
Leann Long
Lisa Higginbotham
Melissa Smith
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
1-1-2025
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) School of Public Health
Abstract
College food insecurity (FI) has grown steadily as a field of research over the past fifteen years. Existing research primarily has demonstrated that FI is a persistent problem with various risk factors and myriad potential impacts on students, though graduate students are largely understudied in favor of undergraduate and aggregated student populations. Given the unique circumstances graduate students face, as well as expected demographic differences such as age and household characteristics, this is a serious gap in the literature. This dissertation aims to investigate graduate student food insecurity in the United States, and particularly at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), to expand the existing literature base. The first paper presents a scoping review that synthesizes the existing peer-reviewed published and gray literature on graduate student FI as of March 2025. The second paper analyzes data from the Fall 2022 Food Access at UAB survey using methodologies consistent with the existing research, as well as path analysis modeling to demonstrating proof of concept for using structural equation modeling (SEM) in this field. The final paper serves as the first attempt in the literature to quantify the amount of direct financial support needed to curb FI among affected graduate students, including distinguishing between student groups and types of food, by using institutional and administrative data from UAB’s on-campus food pantry. Taken together, the research presented in this dissertation serves as the first truly comprehensive look at graduate student food insecurity in Alabama, as well as one of the first attempts to incorporate the cost of living into research on graduate student FI. The methodologies used in the latter parts of this dissertation can be replicated elsewhere and used to help develop interventions. The road to a graduate degree can be long, and preventing and alleviating FI among graduate students is key to their academic and professional success. College food insecurity (FI) has grown steadily as a field of research over the past fifteen years. Existing research primarily has demonstrated that FI is a persistent problem with various risk factors and myriad potential impacts on students, though graduate students are largely understudied in favor of undergraduate and aggregated student populations. Given the unique circumstances graduate students face, as well as expected demographic differences such as age and household characteristics, this is a serious gap in the literature. This dissertation aims to investigate graduate student food insecurity in the United States, and particularly at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), to expand the existing literature base. The first paper presents a scoping review that synthesizes the existing peer-reviewed published and gray literature on graduate student FI as of March 2025. The second paper analyzes data from the Fall 2022 Food Access at UAB survey using methodologies consistent with the existing research, as well as path analysis modeling to demonstrating proof of concept for using structural equation modeling (SEM) in this field. The final paper serves as the first attempt in the literature to quantify the amount of direct financial support needed to curb FI among affected graduate students, including distinguishing between student groups and types of food, by using institutional and administrative data from UAB’s on-campus food pantry. Taken together, the research presented in this dissertation serves as the first truly comprehensive look at graduate student food insecurity in Alabama, as well as one of the first attempts to incorporate the cost of living into research on graduate student FI. The methodologies used in the latter parts of this dissertation can be replicated elsewhere and used to help develop interventions. The road to a graduate degree can be long, and preventing and alleviating FI among graduate students is key to their academic and professional success.
Recommended Citation
Callahan, Amy Elizabeth, "Food Insecurity Among Graduate Students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham" (2025). All ETDs from UAB. 6825.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/6825
Comments
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