This Early-Concept grant (EAGER) submission proposes to examine human adaptability through a biocultural pilot study on how individuals/households (HHs) make decisions when coping with challenging circumstances such as food insecurity (FI). An additional aim is to better understand the directional relationship among FI, coping strategies, and physical and mental health. Using mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative), the objectives of this study are to 1) Collect and analyze data on coping strategies and explore the relationship between an individual's cultural knowledge, their socio-political circumstances, and choice of coping strategy in response to FI; 2) Collect and analyze data on FI, nutritional status and mental health; 3) Document behavioral accommodation (short-term responses with potentially long-term consequences) according to food security status; and 4) Discover the factors that lead to the selection of specific coping strategies as challenges are encountered and determine to what extent culture and circumstance influence behavior. A survey will be administered to 100 adult participants in HHs with children from Tampa Bay, Florida. The survey will be re-administered to a subsample of 10 food insecure participants/HHs and ethnographic interviews along with a food shop-along will be conducted. The data will be analyzed to answer questions about human adaptability, whether food insecurity can be used as an index of accommodation, and whether FI is related to physical and mental health and in what direction. Syndemic theory will be employed to examine the synergism between mental and physical health in relation to individual coping.
The broader impact of this study is that it will produce a data on human adaptability, political economic circumstances, and physical and mental health. This data can be used to test hypothesis about the relationship between these variables and will be included in a re-submission of an NSF Senior grant proposal. The PI and co-PIs plan on making the findings finding available through a website that will be linked to a department webpage. Further, the results will be disseminated through more traditional routes such as presentations at conferences, peer-reviewed publications, and presentations to local community groups and agencies. Finally, this study builds capacity through the training two graduate students.
