Research Findings: Diana Hernández

SMS Professor Diana Hernández, HPM Professor Yumiko Aratani, EHS Doctoral Student Daniel Carrión and others recently published an article titled “Housing hardship and energy insecurity among native-born and immigrant low-income families with children in the United States” in the Journal of Children & Poverty.

Housing hardship is a well-defined and broadly studied form of inequality and disadvantage. Energy insecurity, however, remains a poorly understood phenomenon. There is reason to believe that housing quality and affordability are related to household energy insecurity. Because of the theorized relationship between these phenomena, the researchers set out to understand the factors that influence their independent and co-occurrence, also known as a ‘double burden’. Past reports have shown that particular demographic groups such non-Hispanic Blacks/African Americans are more likely to experience economic energy insecurity, defined as energy costs >10% of household income. This published article entailed an analysis of American Community Survey 2011 data of families with young children who rent in order to identify risk factors for experiencing rent burden, energy insecurity, the double-burden, compared to no burden. 

Findings suggest that low-income households are more likely to experience these economic hardships in general but that specific groups are

disproportionately burdened in different ways. For instance, whereas immigrants are more likely to experience rental burden, they are less likely to experience energy insecurity and are also spared from the double burden. In contrast, native-born African Americans are more likely than all other groups to experience the double burden. These results may be driven by the housing stock available to certain groups due to racial residential segregation, decisions regarding the quality of housing low-income householders are able to afford, as well as home-country values, such as modest living and energy conservation practices, among immigrant families.

Energy insecurity may be an important factor for public health for numerous reasons. As a multifactorial determinant of health, it represents key upstream socioeconomic and environmental inequalities that may lead to health disparities in general health, respiratory health and mental health. As an example, social and cognitive stresses may ensue from precarious decision-making in order to balance one’s budget i.e. compromising one’s thermal comfort for financial reasons: the heat or eat dilemma. Ongoing research will further consider how, and the degree to which, energy insecurity is manifest in health outcomes.  

Hernández, D., Jiang, Y., Carrión, D., Phillips, D., & Aratani, Y. (2016). Housing hardship and energy insecurity among native-born and immigrant low-income families with children in the United States. Journal Of Children And Poverty, 22(2), 77-92. Read the full article here.