COLLEGE STUDENTS AND BASIC NEEDS
Regardless of the study or methods, research indicates that college students in the United States tend to experience basic needs insecurity at higher rates than the general population.
BASIC NEEDS INSECURITY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS
The Hope Center's #RealCollege survey is the nation's largest annual basic needs assessment among college students. The most recent results, released in March 2021, indicate the prevalence of basic needs insecurity among college students (see Defining Key Terms). From these results, here is what we know about students across four-year institutions that participated:
53% of the students who participated had experienced basic needs insecurity in the prior year.
29% had experienced food insecurity in the 30 days prior to the survey.
43% had experienced housing insecurity in the prior year.
14% had experienced conditions consistent with homelessness in the prior year.
When their basic needs are not met, it can be difficult for students to perform their best. Basic needs insecurity can have a significant impact on college students’ learning, serving as a barrier to staying enrolled and graduating. College students experiencing food and other basic needs insecurities also tend to have lower GPAs, poorer health outcomes, and higher rates of depression and anxiety. Given the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic generally and for higher education specifically, students’ struggles with basic needs become even more important for colleges and universities to understand and address to better support and retain students.
Research further illustrates the disparities among students, drawing attention to the importance of considering basic needs insecurity to be a matter of educational equity. Not only are students from minoritized groups more at risk to be basic needs insecure, but they are less likely to access resources.
BASIC NEEDS AND ESU STUDENTS
Emporia State University (ESU) students also experience basic needs insecurity. ESU participated in the #RealCollege survey in fall 2019 and fall 2020. The most recent results from fall 2020 indicated:
59% of ESU students who participated had experienced at least one form of basic needs insecurity in the prior year.
30% of students who participated had experienced food insecurity in the 30 days prior to the survey.
48% of ESU students who participated had experienced housing insecurity in the prior year.
16% of ESU students who participated had experienced conditions consistent with homelessness in the prior year.
Similar to the national results, ESU students from minoritized groups including LGBTQ+ students, students of color, and first-generation college students experienced higher rates of basic needs insecurity than their peers.
Learn more about ESU's survey results in this summary report.
LEARN MORE
If you want to dig in deeper to better understand college student basic needs insecurity, we recommend the following resources as starting points:
Research on College Student Basic Needs
The following are examples of research on college student basic needs insecurity:
Broton, K., & Cady, C.L. (Eds.). (2020). Food insecurity on campus: Action and intervention. John Hopkins University Press.
Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. (2021). #RealCollege 2021: Basic needs insecurity during the ongoing pandemic. https://hope4college.com/rc2021-bni-during-the-ongoing-pandemic/
Leung, C. W., Farooqui, S., Wolfson, J. A., & Cohen, A. J. (2020). Understanding the cumulative burden of basic needs insecurities: Associations with health and academic achievement among college students. American Journal of Health Promotion, 34(2), 275-278. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890117120946210
Nazmi, A., Martinez, S., Byrd, A., Robinson, D., Bianco, S., Maguire, J., ... & Ritchie, L. (2019). A systematic review of food insecurity among US students in higher education. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 14(5), 725-740. https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2018.1484316
United States Government Accountability Office. (2018). Food insecurity: Better information could help eligible college students access federal food assistance benefits (GAO-19-95). Retrieved from https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/696254.pdf
Weaver, R.R., Vaughn, N.A. Hendricks, S.P., McPherson-Myers, P.E., Jia, Q., Willis, S.L., & Rescigno, K.P. (2019). University student food insecurity and academic performance. Journal of American College Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2019.1600522
Willis, D. (2019). Feeding the student body: Unequal food insecurity among college students. American Journal of Health Education, 50(3), 167-175. https://doi.org/10.1080/19325037.2019.1590261
Find additional research and resources in "Useful References & Resources on College Student Basic Needs Insecurity."
Resources and Initiatives
Emporia At the Table (EAT) Initiative at Emporia State University