The Role of Postsecondary Students’ Citizenship/Residency Status in Facing Basic Needs Insecurity
Elmira Jangjou*
The University of Iowa
Abstract
Despite the increasing awareness of basic needs insecurity and its adverse impacts on students’ academic achievement and wellbeing, the racial and social inequities in these experiences remain a critical issue requiring scholarly attention. Using the #RealCollege Survey Dataset, this study investigates the prevalence of basic needs insecurity among postsecondary students according to their citizenship/residency status and reveals that students who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents (NCPR) are disproportionately affected by basic needs insecurity. It also explores several barriers to these students’ basic needs security, including, but not limited to, the reasons why some students do not use campus resources (e.g., not knowing how to apply). The findings of this study suggest that addressing the barriers to students’ basic needs security requires considering multiple intersecting identities, including citizenship/residency status. The paper concludes by providing recommendations for future research, policy, and practice on how higher education institutions can and should appropriately address the related issues and provide adequate support based on students’ unique circumstances.
Keywords: basic needs insecurity, citizenship, postsecondary students, international students, undocumented immigrant students
* Contact: eljangjou@gmail.com
© 2024 Jangjou. This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
The Role of Postsecondary Students’ Citizenship/Residency Status in Facing Basic Needs Insecurity
Obtaining a college degree has become more crucial for future social and economic success (Hout, 2012; Zaber & Wenger, 2021). However, lack of college affordability is a challenge for many individuals (Goldrick-Rab, 2016). Some students sacrifice their basic needs, such as food and shelter, to make ends meet and continue their schooling (Broton & Cady, 2020; Broton et al., 2018; Goldrick-Rab, 2016; Henry, 2020). The research on basic needs insecurity among postsecondary students is developing rapidly. Studies focus on different forms of basic needs insecurity, including food insecurity and housing insecurity. Food insecurity “exists whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate, safe foods, or the inability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain” (Anderson, 1990, p. 1560). Housing insecurity encompasses a number of challenges that inhibit individuals from securing an affordable, safe, and steady place to live (Baker-Smith et al., 2020; Cox et al., 2019).
Research suggests that such basic needs insecurity has severe consequences on individuals’ lives. For one, basic needs insecurity negatively influences individuals’ physical and mental health (Broton et al., 2022; Chilton & Booth, 2007; Coffino et al., 2020; Collier et al., 2021; Cox et al., 2019; Gregory & Coleman-Jensen, 2017; Gundersen & Ziliak, 2015; Meza et al., 2019; Pourmotabbed et al., 2020; Seligman et al., 2010; Soria, 2023; Stahre et al., 2015; Swope & Hernández, 2019). The academic success of basic needs insecure students is also at high risk (Broton, 2021; Farahbakhsh et al., 2017; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018; Maroto et al., 2015; Phillips et al., 2018). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a tipping point, exacerbating these problems (Baker-Smith et al., 2021; Glantsman et al., 2022; Goldrick-Rab, 2021; Soria, Horgos, Jones-White, et al., 2020).
Despite various structural barriers and restrictions that non-U.S. citizens (including international and immigrant students) face while attending college (El Zein et al., 2018; Erisman & Looney, 2007; Farahbakhsh et al., 2017; Garcia & Tierney, 2011; Hanbazaza et al., 2016; Harman, 2003; Leong, 2015; McFadden & Seedorff, 2017; Msengi, 2007; Pang et al., 2010; Perez, 2009; Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007; Sherry et al., 2010; Zota, 2009), empirical studies rarely elaborate on the role of students’ citizenship/residency status in their experiences of basic needs insecurity. While several case studies have suggested that international students are at a higher risk of experiencing basic needs insecurity compared to their peers (e.g., El Zein et al., 2018; Glantsman et al., 2022), existing literature on basic needs insecurity usually fails to consider students’ immigrant status. For these reasons, the issue of basic needs insecurity among postsecondary students based on their citizenship/residency status remains a critical issue that warrants further scholarly attention.
In this paper, I examined the prevalence of basic needs insecurity among postsecondary students based on their citizenship/residency status using the 2020 #RealCollege Survey Database (The Hope Center for College Community and Justice, 2022). I found that students who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents (NCPR) were more likely to experience basic needs insecurity than their U.S. citizen or permanent resident peers (CPR) in 2020, likely due to various structural restrictions in relation to their identities. Therefore, I argue that researchers and higher education leaders should consider multiple intersecting identities, including citizenship/residency status when measuring and addressing the barriers to basic needs security. Considering high rates of basic needs insecurity among NCPR students, I also investigated how several barriers to students’ basic needs security, such as difficulties with accessing resources and COVID-19 pandemic-related challenges, were associated with these students’ basic needs insecurity. The findings of this study highlight the necessity of providing accessible and inclusive resources on campus to enhance all students’, including NCPR students’, wellbeing. Furthermore, higher education leaders and policymakers should recognize the limitations and lived realities of NCPR students, such as having limited access to off-campus federal and institutional support, in order to better serve this population.
Literature Review
Prevalence Rates of Basic Needs Insecurity
Existing literature reports concerning rates of basic needs insecurity in U.S. higher education. Various studies on postsecondary students revealed that food insecurity is prevalent among 14% to 59% of postsecondary students, depending on the scope, location, and assessment tools of these studies (Henry, 2017; Nazmi et al., 2019). According to a review article, 45% of undergraduate students in the United States encounter various challenges related to housing insecurity, including housing unaffordability or instability. The prevalence rate of homelessness among undergraduate students was approximately 10% according to nationally representative data (Broton, 2020). Based on the #RealCollege Survey Database, Baker-Smith et al. (2021) suggest that 34%, 48%, and 58% of the students experienced food insecurity, housing insecurity, and any basic needs insecurity in 2020, respectively. Recent data from the 2019–20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) confirms these significant challenges: about 23% of undergraduate and 12% of graduate students face food insecurity, while 8% of undergraduate and 5% of graduate students experience homelessness (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023).
Previous studies differ in their focus on different forms of basic needs insecurity and inclusion or exclusion of graduate students. A majority of the existing literature focuses on food insecurity, and a limited number of studies examine housing insecurity in higher education. On one hand, some studies suggest that undergraduate students are significantly more likely to experience food insecurity than graduate students (El Zein et al., 2018; Goldrick-Rab, Baker-Smith, Coca, Looker, et al., 2019; Hiller et al., 2021; Soldavini et al., 2019), while others find no difference (Baker-Smith et al., 2020). On the other hand, a recent study on students attending 22 higher education institutions in the United States found that PhD or EdD students are significantly more likely to experience housing insecurity than freshmen (Olfert et al., 2021). The prevalence rate of basic needs insecurity also varies by institution type (e.g., two-year versus four-year universities). These variations are expected and can be related to several factors such as geographical location, local context, cost of living, sample type and size, graduate student stipends, demographic make-up, and differences in assessment tools.
In addition to variation by institutional type and other background factors, there is variation in the prevalence of basic needs insecurity by student background characteristics due to longstanding differences in opportunities and discrimination that students from marginalized backgrounds (e.g., students of color and first-generation students) experience inside and outside of higher education (Crutchfield & Maguire, 2018; Glantsman et al., 2022; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018; Keefe et al., 2021; Ramos, 2022; Walsh-Dilley et al., 2022). One of these individual level factors worth exploring is citizenship/residency status. A few case studies suggest that international students are generally at significant risk of food insecurity (El Zein et al., 2018; Farahbakhsh et al., 2017; Hanbazaza et al., 2016; West, 2019). International students’ experience with housing insecurity is also an underresearched topic. A case study on housing insecurity that distinguishes between domestic and international students found that international students experienced “higher than average” homelessness at the California State University with a prevalence rate of 15.7% compared to 10.9% (Crutchfield & Maguire, 2018, p. 22). These findings confirm several scholars’ suggestion to pay specific attention to citizenship and residency status in the basic needs security discussions (e.g., Bowen et al., 2021; Kalil & Chen, 2008). Therefore, it is important to consider students’ immigration status to have a more holistic understanding of the issue of basic needs insecurity in higher education and address it in a more effective ways by developing inclusive interventions.
There are a limited number of studies exploring the experiences of documented and/or undocumented immigrant students with the issue of basic needs insecurity. A study on undocumented immigrant students attending the University of California reveals that about two-thirds of the survey participants and half of the respondents experienced food and housing insecurity, respectively (Enriquez et al., 2019). These students’ persisting financial needs stemming from the structural restrictions unique to their identities as undocumented immigrants were one of the main barriers to their basic needs security.
Investigating the existing literature on immigrants’ experiences with basic needs insecurity is informative for understanding non-U.S. citizen students’ experiences as well. This literature suggests that U.S. immigrants are highly vulnerable to experiencing food (Huang & King, 2018; Maynard et al., 2019; Rabbitt et al., 2016) and housing insecurity (Huang & King, 2018). Moreover, undocumented immigrants are at particularly high risk of food and housing insecurity (Hadley et al., 2007; Hall & Greenman, 2013; Munger et al., 2015; Standish et al., 2010). Consequently, by focusing on students’ citizenship/residency status, my research provides a rich and far more comprehensive understanding of the experiences of non-U.S. citizens or temporary residents (including immigrant and international students) with basic needs insecurity than is currently available in the literature.
Potential Barriers to Basic Needs Security
Postsecondary Students in General
Scholars have identified several barriers to postsecondary students’ basic needs security, regardless of their citizenship/residency status. The high price of college, numerous competing expenses (e.g., tuition, fees, books and supplies, housing, and food), and the low purchasing power of financial aid have made college affordability a severe obstacle for many students (Broton & Cady, 2020; Goldrick-Rab, 2016). Limited access to proper and affordable childcare and transportation also poses serious challenges to students’ basic needs security (Broton & Cady, 2020).
Research also suggests that few students are able to utilize the existing resources. For instance, students face several barriers to taking advantage of federally-funded safety net programs (e.g., the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP]) due to these resources’ complex and limited eligibility criteria as well as a general lack of information (Bianco et al., 2016; Broton & Goldrick-Rab, 2018; Broton et al., 2018; Dickinson, 2021; El Zein et al., 2018; Goldrick-Rab, Baker-Smith, Coca, Looker, et al., 2019; Henry, 2020). The U.S. Government Accountability Office (2018) report suggests that about 57% of potentially SNAP-eligible low-income college students did not report utilizing this nutrition assistance resource in 2016, which did not account for “undocumented/international students” who are “generally ineligible for federal financial aid and are restricted in the type of other federal aid they can receive” (pp. 49–50). Furthermore, eligibility does not guarantee access to some resources such as housing assistance programs, due to the shortage in the availability of subsidized housing (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2017).
University-affiliated resources, including campus food pantries, are also forms of short-term interventions that aim to address the issue of basic needs insecurity. Despite their significant advantages (Broton & Cady, 2020; Jangjou & Evans, 2021), there are several barriers to utilizing campus food pantries, including social stigma, lack of information, self-identity, and the limited operating hours of the food pantries themselves (El Zein et al., 2018; J. A. King, 2017). Therefore, barriers to accessing basic needs resources can jeopardize students’ basic needs security (Dickinson, 2021; El Zein et al., 2018; Gupton, 2017; Hallett et al., 2018; Henry, 2017, 2020; Hickey et al., 2019; Karp et al., 2008).
The COVID-19 pandemic has also been a tipping point for many postsecondary students, exacerbating the existing problems related to their basic needs insecurity (Baker-Smith et al., 2021; Goldrick-Rab, 2021; Soria, Horgos, Jones-White, et al., 2020). This crisis has had critical consequences, such as being infected with COVID-19, losing a loved one to the virus, lack of access to several campus resources (e.g., campus food pantries), closure of K–12 schools and childcare centers, and income loss, that have negatively impacted postsecondary students’ basic needs security (Baker-Smith et al., 2021; Foresman, 2020; Glantsman et al., 2022; Goldrick-Rab, 2021; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Wolfers, 2020). First-generation students were also at higher risks of financial hardship, basic needs insecurity, mental health disorders, and difficulty in adapting to online instruction compared to their continuing-generation peers during the pandemic (Soria, Horgos, Chirikov, et al., 2020). A study at a large, urban, private university in the Midwestern United States revealed that students from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds, including students of color, international students, first-generation students, and sexual minority students, were at significantly greater risk of food and housing insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic than their peers (Glantsman et al., 2022). Due to the considerable magnitude of the pandemic, scholars should not overlook its role as a barrier to basic needs insecurity in addressing the existing flaws in the current system and better preparing for similar emergencies in the future.
Non-U.S. Citizen Students
As noted earlier, non-U.S. citizen postsecondary students are an understudied group that can be vulnerable to basic needs insecurity due to their unique circumstances that pose additional challenges. These students face similar financial obstacles related to high costs and college unaffordability to their citizen peers, but for different reasons. Immigrant students’ ability to address their basic needs can be challenging due to their need to send money to relatives in their country of origin, lack of appropriate immigration documents, high cost of immigration documentation, limited earning and employment opportunities, restrictions to receiving governmental support programs, and relatively high housing costs (Dickinson, 2021; Erisman & Looney, 2007; Freedman et al., 2015; Hadley et al., 2007; Ip et al., 2015; Kaushal et al., 2014; Munger et al., 2015; Quandt et al., 2006; Sharkey et al., 2011; Sharkey et al., 2013; Standish et al., 2010). Moreover, undocumented immigrant students are ineligible for federal grants and loans and unable to work legally, and therefore often incapable of affording the nonresident tuition rates depending on the state and university they attend (Erisman & Looney, 2007; Garcia & Tierney, 2011; Pang et al., 2010; Zota, 2009).
Limited access to public assistance programs may be a factor in the higher rates of basic needs insecurity among non-U.S. citizen students. However, investigating this issue is complicated due to varying eligibility requirements across programs and household members. For example, a household may include citizens (e.g., children born in the United States) as well as immigrants (e.g., undocumented immigrants and/or permanent residents). Such a situation might result in U.S.-citizen children being eligible for SNAP, whereas their immigrant parents might not be (Rabbitt et al., 2016) depending on certain immigration status requirements (e.g., lawfully admitted for permanent residence; United States Department of Agriculture, 2011). The complex nature of these factors makes it challenging for non-citizens individuals in need to access federally-funded assistance programs and for scholars to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs.
Existing research on international students warrants the possibility of encountering difficulties addressing their basic needs due to their unique conditions. The financial hardships that these students generally face when studying abroad are driven from high costs of living compared to their home country, insufficient income, lack of clarity on university costs and fees, high tuition rates, limited access to loans or scholarships, high textbook prices, restrictions on working off-campus, and health insurance limitations while living abroad (Harman, 2003; Leong, 2015; Msengi, 2007; Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007; Sherry et al., 2010; West, 2019). Many of these economic obstacles are exacerbated due to the high exchange rate between U.S. dollars and domestic currencies for some students (El Zein et al., 2018). These financial challenges can be a source of extreme stress for international students (Msengi, 2007). Certain countries like Australia and Canada allow international students to remedy their financial difficulties by working off-campus in major cities, thereby offering them considerable economic advantages (Government of Canada, n.d.; Harman, 2003). However, there are various restrictions that prevent international students on temporary visas from working off-campus in the United States (McFadden & Seedorff, 2017; West, 2019), which makes the international students in the United States more vulnerable to losing a job opportunity on campus.
These economic challenges are compounded by a lack of social capital. As international students often struggle to make friends and engage in the local community, many are at a key disadvantage when it comes to accessing social support and learning about the new environment in which they currently reside (Sherry et al., 2010). International students face an array of problems related to lack of funding, choosing advisors, and other departmental issues distinct to their unique status (Le & Gardner, 2010). In a mixed-method study on international students in Australia, Harman (2003) argues that “especially on arrival in Australia, new international PhD students without previous experience in Australia or without close friends already in Australia are not well placed to quickly find appropriate and affordable residential accommodation” (p. 343). This limited access to sources of information (i.e., social capital) generally results in extended financial burdens for these students. According to Leong (2015), international students’ struggle to make American friends and their self-segregation (voluntarily or involuntarily) with co-nationals limit both their social network and opportunities for acculturation. Moreover, limited access to proper public transportation and obstacles to car ownership (e.g., affording a car and obtaining a driver’s license) in the early years of coming to the United States often result in their inability to go shopping for groceries, clothing, and other daily needs (Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007). These examples confirm the downsides of being unfamiliar with a new living environment and, consequently inability to navigate the system and survive the hardships for international students studying abroad all around the world, including the United States.
International students’ experiences also vary considerably depending on their marital status. As married students and students with children have responsibilities toward their dependents, they tend to look for schools for their kids, assist their spouse with adapting to the new environment (e.g., help them locate English as a second language courses), and find family-compatible housing beyond a dorm room (Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007). Some students may have access to sponsoring agencies which provide married international students with additional allowances when they are accompanied by their dependents (e.g., spouses and children). Beyond this, however, there are few provisions available for spouses and dependents (Harman, 2003). This situation is further worrisome for international students in the United States because their dependents often do not have permission to work in the United States due to their temporary visas, i.e., F-2 visas (ICE, 2020; West, 2019). In some such cases, students decide to leave their dependents behind when moving to another country for school (Harman, 2003).
Due to the diversity of the international students’ cuisine and potential dietary restrictions, they are prone to encounter food-related challenges while studying abroad. For example, the absence of halal and/or ethnic food on campus was cited explicitly in several studies as a persistent challenge by some international students in the United States (e.g., Sherry et al., 2010). Leong (2015) found that the international students in her study varied in terms of cultural differences and cultural misunderstandings, which included food. A group of students who were predominantly Chinese, for instance, shared their difficulties with consuming American food and obtaining special ingredients for their traditional foods, which required students to shop from “specialized grocery stores” (Leong, 2015, p. 465). Therefore, students from non-dominant food cultures (e.g., immigrant and international students) are at risk of having limited access to their preferred nutrition options. Moreover, acquiring such scarce food would potentially impose additional financial burdens on these students.
As discussed earlier, the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted students’ basic needs security and wellbeing. There are additional factors that should be accounted for while exploring the scale of this crisis for undocumented immigrant and international students. Whereas the U.S. government stepped in with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, it overlooked and left out several vulnerable populations. This federal relief legislation, which was passed by Congress on March 25, 2020, and signed into law on March 27, 2020, included important provisions to help families and individuals who the pandemic has challenged, but it failed to include undocumented immigrants and international students. These students were restricted from taking advantage of the related assistance programs in the early rounds of these federal emergency grants (Kerr, 2021; Lahoud, 2022; Piedmont Virginia Community College, 2021). Fortunately, international and undocumented immigrant students became eligible for Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund III (HEERF III) grants under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 under certain criteria in the later rounds (NAFSA, 2021). However, these changes in the regulations and difficulties in navigating the application for these emergency grants can diminish the accessibility of these important resources to non-U.S. citizen students in need.
International students were negatively impacted by the pandemic crisis on many other levels. Their needs and challenges included accessing emergency housing, adapting to online learning and working from home, complex health care and insurance coverage, difficulties in accessing banking systems in their home countries, travel and reentry restrictions, and uncertainty about immigration regulations for maintaining visa status in the United States (Beckstein, 2020; Mbous et al., 2022; Quintero, 2020; Veerasamy & Ammigan, 2021). Like many other students living on campus, international students had to leave their on-campus housing. However, returning “home” was a different scenario for the students whose “homes” might be out of the U.S. borders, exposing these students to high travel expenses and high safety dangers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a further twist, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) announced that international students (and their dependents) who attend institutions that plan to operate entirely online during the fall 2020 semester would not be allowed to remain in the United States (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2020). In addition to presenting numerous financial and social challenges to international students and their families, this policy was based on a flawed assumption that they had a place to go outside of the United States. Fortunately, the federal government revoked this decision after a coalition of more than 200 universities supported at least one of the eight lawsuits challenging the policy (Castiello-Gutiérrez & Li, 2020). Nevertheless, these constant changes in the regulations (e.g., emergency grants and immigration policies) have a high potential to negatively impact international and immigrant students, and their magnitude is still unknown. As these and other challenges increase the likelihood of non-U.S. citizen students experiencing basic needs insecurity, they require further scholarly research.
Research Questions
This study investigates the prevalence of basic needs insecurity among postsecondary students according to their citizenship/residency status. It also explores several barriers to students’ basic needs security. Moreover, it predicts the probabilities of experiencing barriers to accessing campus resources considering the critical role that these resources play in NCPR students’ lives due to the limitations of federally-funded safety net programs. The central research questions guiding this study are:
- 1. How prevalent is the issue of basic needs insecurity among postsecondary students who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents (NCPR)?
- 2. Among all postsecondary students, does NCPR status predict basic needs insecurity? If so, does this relationship persist net of background factors?
- 3. Among NCPR postsecondary students, what barriers are associated with basic needs insecurity net of background factors?
- 4. Which background factors predict the possibility of experiencing some of the barriers to access campus resources for NCPR students?
Methods
Data and Sample
This empirical study draws on the #RealCollege Survey Database (The Hope Center for College Community and Justice, 2022). The Hope Center has administered this survey at more than 530 two-year and four-year colleges and universities across the United States. More than a half-million postsecondary students participated in six #RealCollege surveys from 2015 to 2020. For this study, I used the 2020 survey data to focus on the unique experiences of students during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic1. The 2020 survey was distributed to over 1.84 million enrolled students. More than 195,000 students from 130 two-year colleges and 72 four-year colleges and universities responded, resulting in an estimated response rate of 11% (Baker-Smith et al., 2021). I further limited the analytic sample to undergraduate and graduate students2 who reported being enrolled during spring 2020 in undergraduate or graduate level studies, which enabled me to include data related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was only asked of this population.
Considering the focus of this study on students’ citizenship/residency status, I used the only question in the #RealCollege Survey related to this demographic characteristic. This question is, “Are you a U.S. citizen or permanent resident?” with three response options of yes, no, or prefer not to answer. I only included the respondents who responded with a “yes” or a “no” to this question in the study. This approach allowed me to divide the sample into two groups of “U.S. citizens or permanent residents” (CPR) and “non-U.S.-citizens or temporary residents” (NCPR), based on self-reported data. This step excluded 692 respondents who preferred not to answer this question and 19,929 who skipped this item, decreasing the number of survey respondents to 90,4293. Lastly, I finalized the analytic sample by using listwise deletion4 based on all variables (i.e., dependent, independent, and control variables) explained in the Methods section. The final analytic sample size, which includes both CPR and NCPR, is 65,963.
Categorizing students into two groups based on their citizenship/residency status enables the examination of the role of students’ distinct identities in experiencing challenges to address their basic needs. The first group (i.e., CPR) can include students who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, documented immigrants, or refugees. The second group, NCPR, can consist of students on temporary visas (i.e., international students) or undocumented immigrants. The existing literature suggests that these two groups’ lived experiences are different due to their identities related to citizenship/residency. Table 1 presents the survey respondents’ demographic characteristics based on their citizenship/residency status based on the final analytic sample.
|
Demographic Characteristics |
Non-U.S. Citizens or Temporary Residents (NCPR) |
U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents (CPR) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
N |
Within Group % |
N |
Within Group % |
|
|
Racial/Ethnic Background |
||||
|
White or Caucasian |
315 |
11.00 |
34,208 |
54.21 |
|
African American or Black |
291 |
10.16 |
5,797 |
9.19 |
|
Hispanic, Latinx, or Chicanx |
801 |
27.97 |
9,481 |
15.03 |
|
Middle Eastern, North African, or Arab |
120 |
4.19 |
504 |
0.80 |
|
Southeast Asian |
395 |
13.79 |
1,023 |
1.62 |
|
Other Asian or Asian American |
649 |
22.66 |
2,202 |
3.49 |
|
American Indian, Native American, or Indigenous |
< 10 |
0.24 |
192 |
0.30 |
|
Pacific Islander |
< 10 |
0.21 |
152 |
0.24 |
|
Multiracial |
280 |
9.78 |
9,540 |
15.12 |
|
Gender |
||||
|
Female |
1,673 |
58.41 |
44,167 |
70.00 |
|
Male |
1,116 |
38.97 |
17,026 |
26.98 |
|
Non-Binary |
30 |
1.05 |
1,166 |
1.85 |
|
Prefer to Self-Describe |
17 |
0.59 |
431 |
0.68 |
|
Prefer not to Answer |
28 |
0.98 |
309 |
0.49 |
|
Level of Postsecondary Education |
||||
|
Undergraduate Student |
2,029 |
70.84 |
56,433 |
89.44 |
|
Graduate Student |
835 |
29.16 |
6,666 |
10.56 |
|
Years in College |
||||
|
One Year or Less |
826 |
28.84 |
12,789 |
20.27 |
|
Two Years |
639 |
22.31 |
14,939 |
23.68 |
|
Three Years |
461 |
16.10 |
13,777 |
21.83 |
|
Four Years |
300 |
10.47 |
9,030 |
14.31 |
|
Five Years or More |
638 |
22.28 |
12,564 |
19.91 |
|
Generational Status |
||||
|
First-Gen Student |
957 |
33.41 |
15,607 |
24.73 |
|
Continuing-Gen Student |
1,907 |
66.59 |
47,492 |
75.27 |
|
College Region |
||||
|
Midwest |
482 |
16.83 |
11,033 |
17.49 |
|
Northeast |
498 |
17.39 |
9,112 |
14.44 |
|
South |
885 |
30.9 |
20,264 |
32.11 |
|
West |
999 |
34.88 |
22,690 |
35.96 |
|
College Sector |
||||
|
Two-Year College |
1,387 |
48.43 |
29,254 |
46.36 |
|
Four-Year College |
1,477 |
51.57 |
33,845 |
53.64 |
|
Financial Status During Childhood |
||||
|
Financial Stability |
1,443 |
50.38 |
24,639 |
39.05 |
|
Financial Challenges |
877 |
30.62 |
25,922 |
41.08 |
|
Do not Know |
482 |
16.83 |
11,605 |
18.39 |
|
Prefer not to Answer |
62 |
2.16 |
933 |
1.48 |
|
Being a Parent, Primary Caregiver, or Guardian |
||||
|
Yes |
117 |
4.09 |
4,314 |
6.84 |
|
No |
2,747 |
95.91 |
58,785 |
93.16 |
|
Marital Status |
||||
|
Single |
1,736 |
60.61 |
32,502 |
51.51 |
|
In a Relationship |
726 |
25.35 |
22,233 |
35.24 |
|
Married or Domestic Partnership |
378 |
13.20 |
7,493 |
11.87 |
|
Divorced or Widowed |
24 |
0.84 |
871 |
1.38 |
|
Live with a Spouse or Partner |
||||
|
Yes |
553 |
19.31 |
14,634 |
23.19 |
|
No |
2,288 |
79.89 |
48,054 |
76.16 |
|
Prefer not to Answer |
23 |
0.80 |
411 |
0.65 |
|
Total Number |
2,864 |
- |
63,099 |
- |
Basic Needs Security Measures
Food and housing insecurity are multi-dimensional concepts that are under considerable debate regarding the best way to measure them (Carletto et al., 2013; Cox et al., 2019; Cox et al., 2017; Goldrick-Rab, Baker-Smith, Coca, & Looker, 2019; Webb et al., 2006). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) food security scale is one of the most applied ways to assess the prevalence and severity of food insecurity at a household level in the United States (Bickel et al., 2000). The #RealCollege Survey (The Hope Center for College Community and Justice, 2022) measures food security among students using the USDA’s 18-item validated question modules. These questions cover a range of experiences such as worrying that food will run out, a lack of money to buy food, cutting the size of a meal or skipping meals, and not eating for a whole day because of financial issues. The number of affirmative responses to these questions determines the respondents’ food security level. Students are placed in one of the four USDA food security categories: high food security, marginal food security, low food security, and very low food security. The USDA describes the food security status of the first two categories in combination as food secure and the latter two as food insecure.
It is also challenging to measure the prevalence of housing insecurity because of the hidden nature of this problem. An ideal housing insecurity measure should include “comprehensive, valid and reliable measures of the complex concept of housing insecurity, including dimensions of affordability, stability, adequacy, and safety that allow analysts to differentiate levels of severity and duration over time” (Broton, 2020, p. 27). The #RealCollege Survey Dataset assesses housing insecurity with a 9-item set of questions the Hope Lab developed based on prior studies, including the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation. These measures examine factors such as the ability to pay rent or utilities, the need to move frequently, moving in with other people due to financial issues, receiving summons to appear in housing court, having account defaults, going into collections, and leaving a household because of feeling unsafe. Finally, if any of these measures identify a student as food insecure or housing insecure, the #RealCollege Survey dataset considers them to be experiencing basic needs insecurity. The Hope Center has published a report that explains the measures used to assess basic needs security, which includes their survey modules as well (Goldrick-Rab, Baker-Smith, Coca, & Looker, 2019). The #RealCollege Survey questions are available online as web appendices on The Hope Center’s webpage (The Hope Center for College Community and Justice, 2021).
Measuring Barriers
This section explains how I have used different #RealCollege 2020 Survey questions to measure potential barriers to students’ basic needs security. Table 2 presents detailed information about these measures and my attempts to organize them based on the #RealCollege Survey Database.
Responsibilities Toward Dependents
In order to account for students’ responsibilities toward their dependents, I considered two sets of questions and created two dummy variables. One of these variables describes whether the student pays for childcare. I combined two questions of parenthood/being a guardian with the question about the amount paid for childcare. The students who have selected an amount from “$99 or less” to “$400 or more” per week are considered as paying for childcare. The responses such as “not applicable,” “I don’t pay for childcare,” or “not a parent or guardian” are counted as not spending on childcare. I also tried to take dependent responsibilities related to the COVID-19 pandemic into account. Hence, I used the students’ responses to the grid yes/no question related to experiencing various challenges during spring 2020. I combined “I had to take care of a family member while attending classes” and “I had to help children in my home with their schooling while attending classes” as one dummy variable to measure students’ responsibilities toward their dependents during the pandemic.
School Closure and Sickness due to COVID-19
As mentioned before, The Hope Center included several questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in their survey in response to this crisis. These grid questions asked yes/no questions about whether the students experienced different conditions during and/or due to the pandemic. I considered some of these conditions as financial issues or responsibilities toward dependents. The other measurements that I included in my analyses are the three dummy variables determining whether the students’ campus was closed, they were sick with COVID-19, or a close friend/family member was sick or died with COVID-19. I considered the campus closure as a potential barrier to students’ basic needs security because this incident might limit students’ access to campus resources. I included each of these variables as separate barriers to basic needs security. These pandemic-related issues can also be considered as tipping points, which include “changes in living situations . . . [and] medical crises” that result in endangering students’ basic needs security (Henry, 2020, p. 29).
Financial Issues
Several questions in the survey focus on whether the students experienced financial issues in 2020. Some of these questions are about the students’ employment status. I created one dummy variable that shows whether the students have reported any form of job loss by using the students’ responses to four questions. Two of these questions were asked to everyone in 2020 and indicated how many jobs the students had before the pandemic and how many jobs they currently have with three response options of “one job, more than one job, or no job.” If a student’s response changed from one job to no jobs or more than one job to one/no job, I counted this case as a job loss. I also used another question that was only asked to the students who indicated having one or more jobs before the pandemic. If a student answered the “What is the current status of that job?” question by choosing “I lost this job” or “my current hours/pay are lower than they were before the COVID-19,” I considered them as experiencing an employment loss. An additional question is taken into account for this dummy variable. The questionnaire asks respondents to select the challenges that they have experienced in the spring term of 2020 to the present time from the students enrolled during spring 2020. I regarded the “I lost a job” and “I experienced cuts to my hours or pay at work” responses as losing employment as well.
I created two other dummy variables for financial issues by referring to the grid question related to experiencing challenges in the spring 2020. These two variables indicated whether the students had difficulty paying their rent or struggled to afford returning home during the pandemic. Therefore, three dummy variables measure students’ financial barriers to basic needs security, and I included all three variables separately in my analyses.
Barriers to Access Resources
One of the grid survey questions asks students about why they do not use campus support, with the response options of “yes” or “no” for each barrier. I created eight dummy variables for each of these reasons listed in Table 2, which some of them accounted for different forms of lack of knowledge about resources, including not knowing about the application process, availability, and eligibility. I also created one dummy variable related to this issue using two survey questions about students’ familiarity with the emergency grants as a barrier to reaching out to them.
|
Potential Barriers |
Related Survey Question |
Affirmative Responses (%) |
|---|---|---|
|
Responsibilities Toward Dependents |
||
|
Pay Childcare |
Combination of the following questions: • Are you the parent, primary caregiver, or guardian (legal or informal) of any children? • How much do you pay in total per week for childcare? |
79 (2.76%) |
|
Taking Care of Dependents During the Pandemic |
Combination of the following questions: Which of the following did you experience with your SPRING 2020 TERM during the COVID-19 pandemic? • I had to take care of a family member while attending classes. • I had to help children in my home with their schooling while attending classes. |
1,080 (37.71%) |
|
School Closure and Sickness due to COVID-19 |
||
|
Campus Closure |
Which of the following did you experience with your SPRING 2020 TERM during the COVID-19 pandemic? • My campus closed. |
2,348 (81.98%) |
|
Sick with COVID |
Which of the following did you experience from spring term 2020 to present during the COVID-19 pandemic? • I was sick with COVID. |
189 (6.60%) |
|
A Close Friend/Family Member Sick/Died with COVID |
Combination of the following questions: Which of the following did you experience from spring term 2020 to present during the COVID-19 pandemic? • A close friend or family member was sick with COVID. • A close friend or family member died of COVID. |
1,138 (39.73%) |
|
Financial Issues |
||
|
Employment Loss |
Combination of the following questions: • Before COVID-19, did you have: (1) One job, (2) More than one job, (3) No job. • What is the current status of that [pre-COVID] job? • Currently, do you have: (1) One job, (2) More than one job, (3) No job. |
1,332 (46.51%) |
|
Struggled to Pay Rent During the Pandemic |
Did you experience any of the following from spring term 2020 to present due to the COVID-19 pandemic? • I had difficulty paying my rent. |
1,203 (42.00%) |
|
Struggled to Afford Returning Home During the Pandemic |
Combination of the following questions: Did you experience any of the following from spring term 2020 to present due to the COVID-19 pandemic? • I struggled to pay to go back home. • I could not afford to go back home. |
1,084 (37.85%) |
|
Barriers to Access Resources: Reasons Why Not Using Campus Supports If you have not used most or all of the programs listed above, which of the following reasons were most important to your decision?a |
||
|
Difficulty Completing the Application |
• I had difficulty completing the application |
410 (14.32%) |
|
Too Embarrassed to Apply |
• I am embarrassed to apply. |
518 (18.09%) |
|
Not Know How to Apply |
• I do not know how to apply. |
1,363 (47.59%) |
|
Not Know they Existed/Available |
• I did not know they existed or were available. |
1,481 (51.71%) |
|
Do not Need |
• I do not need these programs. |
1,218 (42.53%) |
|
Unawareness about Eligibility |
• I do not think I am eligible. |
2,108 (73.60%) |
|
Thinking Others Need More than Them |
• Other people need those programs more than I do. |
1,866 (65.15%) |
|
Those Like Them do not Use |
• People like me do not use programs like that. |
646 (22.56%) |
|
Barriers to Access Resources: Lack of Knowledge about Resources |
||
|
Emergency Grants Including CARES Act |
Combination of the following questions: To the best of your knowledge, does your college or university offer emergency grants to students?b Before this survey, have you heard of the CARES Act grant program?c |
1,224 (42.74%) |
Note. N = 2,864
a These questions have not been asked if a student has indicated using all the resources. Although using all resources does not necessarily mean they have not experienced these barriers, I decided to replace missing values for these barrier questions with 0.
b Selecting “I don’t know” is considered as a barrier to accessing emergency grants.
c I considered the “no” and “I don’t know” responses as lack of information about this resource.
Covariates
The background factors related to the students’ demographic characteristics, which are documented in several studies to affect students’ likelihood of experiencing basic needs insecurity, included in the analyses are as follows: race, gender, socioeconomic status (SES; hardship during childhood), first-generation status, marital status, living with a spouse/partner, parenthood status, current level of study, and years in college. I also included variables about the region (Midwest, Northeast, South, or West) and the sector (two-year versus four-year) of the college/university that the students were attending. No other information about these higher education institutions was included in this secondary dataset to protect the identity of the institutions.
Analysis
To address the first research question, I reported the rates of basic needs insecurity among NCPR students separately for each measure (i.e., food insecurity and housing insecurity). The Hope Center calculated these measures based on students’ responses to the #RealCollege Survey questions about basic needs security. For the second research question, I tested for statistically significant differences by citizenship/residency status using a chi-square test for the categorical variables and determined where the significant differences were using adjusted residuals. After finding statistically significant differences between students who are NCPR and CPR in these analyses, I conducted logistic regression analyses to explore whether these differences persist net of background factors described in the Covariates section. The model is:
y (Basic Needs Insecurity Measurei) = α+ β (NCPRi) + γ (Xi) + εi (1)
where yi represents the measures of basic needs insecurity (i.e., dependent variables), NCPRi is an indicator of citizenship/residency status, and Xi represents a vector of control variables listed in Table 1, and εi is an error term. To aid in understanding, I reported the predicted probability in addition to logit coefficients in all the related results tables in the Results section.
For the third and fourth research questions, I limited the analyses to NCPR students and conducted logistic regression analyses to explore these questions. In the logistic regression models for the third research question, the dependent variable is the basic needs insecurity statuses (i.e., binary variables for food insecurity, housing insecurity, and any basic needs insecurity) and the independent variables are the variables related to basic needs security barriers. Specifically, the model includes vectors of independent variables for each category of barriers (i.e., financial issues, barriers to access resources, responsibilities toward dependents, and other COVID-19 related issues) to account for every variable explained in the Measuring Barriers section. Moreover, Xi represents a vector of control variables as described in Table 1 (Model 2).
y (Basic Needs Insecurity Measurei) = α+ β (Financial Issuesi) + γ (Barriers to Access Resourcesi) + δ (Responsibilities Toward Dependentsi) + θ (Other COVID-19 Related Issuesi) +ϑ (Xi) + εi (2)
For the logistic regression models of the fourth research question, the barriers to accessing campus resources are the dependent variables. The independent variables include several background factors described in the Measuring Barriers section to explore how these factors predict barriers among NCPR students. I selected these background factors because they are typically required in various application forms and surveys, most likely to be readily available, and can enable higher education professionals to tailor campus resources to students’ needs. Xi represents a vector of control variables, including childhood SES, marital status, living with a spouse or partner, being a parent, primary caregiver, or guardian, birth year, region and sector of the students’ college/university, and basic needs security status (Model 3). The following model is used for each selected barrier separately (as described in Table 2):
y (Barriers to Accessing Campus Resourcesi) = α+ β1 (Racei) + β2 (Genderi) + β3 (First-Generation Statusi)+ β4 (Level of Studyi) + β5 (Years in Collegei) + γ (Xi) + εi (3)
Results
Prevalence of Basic Needs Insecurity Among CPR and NCPR Students
Overall, 34%, 47%, and 58% of students experienced food insecurity, housing insecurity, and any basic needs insecurity, respectively. Based on the chi-square tests, NCPR students were significantly more likely to experience basic needs insecurity (p < .001) than their CPR peers (Table 3). These statistically significant differences persisted after controlling for several background factors. All else being equal, CPR and NCPR students had a 58% and 72% likelihood of facing any basic needs insecurity (p < .001), respectively (Table 4).
|
Measures |
Overall (%) |
Frequency (%) |
p-value |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents (CPR) |
Non-U.S. Citizens or Temporary Residents (NCPR) |
|||
|
Food Insecurity |
22,325 (33.84%) |
21,249 (33.68%) |
1,076 (37.57%) |
.000 |
|
Housing Insecurity |
31,253 (47.38%) |
29,683 (47.04%) |
1,570 (54.82%) |
.000 |
|
Any Basic Needs Insecurity |
38,139 (57.82%) |
36,269 (57.48%) |
1,870 (65.29%) |
.000 |
Note. The p-value represents a chi-square test of statistical significance by citizenship/residency status.
Barriers to NCPR Students’ Basic Needs Security
In this section, I present results on the relationship between specific barriers and each indicator of basic needs insecurity. According to these results, NCPR students who reported issues such as taking care of dependents during the pandemic (p < .01), a close friend/family member sickness or death with COVID-19 (p < .05), employment loss (p < .001), struggling to pay rent during the pandemic (p < .001), struggling to afford returning home during the pandemic (p < .001), experiencing difficulty completing the application for campus resources (p < .001), being too embarrassed to apply for these programs (p < .01), or unawareness about their eligibility for them (p < .01), were statistically more likely to experience food insecurity compared to their peers who did not mention these barriers, all else equal. On the contrary, students who shared that they did not use campus resources because they did not need them (p < .001) or thought “other people” need these resources more than them (p < .001) had a lower likelihood than their counterparts to be food insecure (i.e., greater food security), net of background factors (Table 5).
The logistic regression analysis about experiencing housing insecurity suggests that NCPR students who faced challenges, including taking care of dependents during the pandemic (p < .001), a close friend/family member got sickness or death with COVID-19 (p < .001), employment loss (p < .001), struggling to pay rent during the pandemic (p < .001), struggling to afford returning home during the pandemic (p < .001), not knowing how to apply for campus resources (p < .05), or unawareness about their eligibility for them (p < .05) were statistically more likely to be housing insecure compared to their peers who did not report these issues, all else equal (Table 6).
|
Citizenship/Residency Status |
Basic Needs Insecurity |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Food Insecurity |
Housing Insecurity |
|||
|
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins (SE) |
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins (SE) |
|
|
NCPR |
0.312*** (0.044) |
.386 (0.010) |
0.573*** (0.043) |
.608 (0.010) |
|
CPR (Reference) |
.316 (0.002) |
.467 (0.002) |
||
|
Controls |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Any Basic Needs Insecurity |
||||
|
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins (SE) |
|||
|
NCPR |
0.589*** (0.045) |
.715 (0.009) |
||
|
CPR (Reference) |
.582 (0.002) |
|||
|
Controls |
✓ |
✓ |
||
Note. Controls include race, gender, childhood SES, first-generation status, marital status, living with a spouse/partner, parenthood status, birth year, the current level of study, years in college, and region and sector of the students’ college/university. N = 65,963
Further analysis was conducted by incorporating potential basic needs security barriers as additional controls to check for robustness. While the findings regarding housing insecurity remained significant and unchanged, the results for food insecurity became insignificant.
*p ≤ .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.
|
Potential Barriers |
Food Insecurity |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins (SE) |
||
|
Responsibilities Toward Dependents |
|||
|
Pay Childcare |
Y |
0.279 (0.480) |
.387 (0.111) |
|
N |
.323 (0.011) |
||
|
Taking Care of Dependents During the Pandemic |
Y |
0.331** (0.108) |
.372 (0.019) |
|
N |
.298 (0.014) |
||
|
School Closure and Sickness due to COVID-19 |
|||
|
Campus Closure |
Y |
0.198 (0.132) |
.333 (0.012) |
|
N |
.290 (0.025) |
||
|
Sick with COVID |
Y |
−0.073 (0.191) |
.310 (0.040) |
|
N |
.326 (0.011) |
||
|
A Close Friend/Family Member Sick/Died with COVID |
Y |
0.235* (0.107) |
.357 (0.019) |
|
N |
.305 (0.014) |
||
|
Financial Issues |
|||
|
Employment Loss |
Y |
0.376 *** (0.103) |
.370 (0.017) |
|
N |
.288 (0.015) |
||
|
Struggled to Pay Rent During the Pandemic |
Y |
1.396*** (0.103) |
.519 (0.018) |
|
N |
.211 (0.012) |
||
|
Struggled to Afford Returning Home During the Pandemic |
Y |
0.849*** (0.105) |
.519 (0.018) |
|
N |
.259 (0.013) |
||
|
Barriers to Access Resources: Reasons Why Not Using Campus Supports |
|||
|
Difficulty Completing the Application |
Y |
0.593*** (0.142) |
.444 (0.032) |
|
N |
.306 (0.011) |
||
|
Not Know How to Apply |
Y |
0.105 (0.115) |
.337 (0.017) |
|
N |
.314 (0.016) |
||
|
Too Embarrassed to Apply |
Y |
0.379** (0.13) |
.396 (0.028) |
|
N |
.310 (0.012) |
||
|
Not Know they Existed/Available |
Y |
0.106 (0.111) |
.336 (0.016) |
|
N |
.313 (0.016) |
||
|
Unawareness about Eligibility |
Y |
0.356** (0.123) |
.346 (0.013) |
|
N |
.270 (0.021) |
||
|
Do not Need |
Y |
−0.579*** (0.108) |
.256 (0.016) |
|
N |
.381 (0.015) |
||
|
Thinking Others Need More than Them |
Y |
−0.453*** (0.111) |
.291 (0.013) |
|
N |
.393 (0.021) |
||
|
Those Like Them do not Use |
Y |
0.071 (0.125) |
.337 (0.024) |
|
N |
.321 (0.013) |
||
|
Barriers to Access Resources: Lack of Knowledge About Resources |
|||
|
Emergency Grants Including CARES Act |
Y |
−0.040 (0.101) |
.320 (0.017) |
|
N |
.329 (0.014) |
||
|
Controls |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Note. Controls include race, gender, childhood SES, first-generation status, marital status, living with a spouse/partner, parenthood status, birth year, the current level of study, years in college, and region and sector of the students’ college/university. N = 2,864.
*p < .05, **p < .01. ***p < .001.
|
Potential Barriers |
Housing Insecurity |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins (SE) |
||
|
Responsibilities Toward Dependents |
|||
|
Pay Childcare |
Y |
0.667 (0.504) |
.729 (0.098) |
|
N |
.579 (0.012) |
||
|
Taking Care of Dependents During the Pandemic |
Y |
0.385*** (0.107) |
.641 (0.019) |
|
N |
.548 (0.015) |
||
|
School Closure and Sickness due to COVID-19 |
|||
|
Campus Closure |
Y |
0.129 (0.126) |
.590 (0.013) |
|
N |
.558 (0.028) |
||
|
Sick with COVID |
Y |
0.199 (0.217) |
.628 (0.049) |
|
N |
.581 (0.012) |
||
|
A Close Friend/Family Member Sick/Died with COVID |
Y |
0.551*** (0.106) |
.662 (0.018) |
|
N |
.530 (0.016) |
||
|
Financial Issues |
|||
|
Employment Loss |
Y |
0.423*** (0.099) |
.638 (0.017) |
|
N |
.536 (0.016) |
||
|
Struggled to Pay Rent During the Pandemic |
Y |
1.772*** (0.108) |
.797 (0.014) |
|
N |
.400 (0.014) |
||
|
Struggled to Afford Returning Home During the Pandemic |
Y |
0.785*** (0.106) |
.696 (0.018) |
|
N |
.511 (0.015) |
||
|
Barriers to Access Resources: Reasons Why Not Using Campus Supports |
|||
|
Difficulty Completing the Application |
Y |
−0.081 (0.151) |
.567 (0.034) |
|
N |
.587 (0.013) |
||
|
Not Know How to Apply |
Y |
0.290* (0.113) |
.620 (0.018) |
|
N |
.550 (0.018) |
||
|
Too Embarrassed to Apply |
Y |
0.261 (0.136) |
.635 (0.028) |
|
N |
.572 (0.013) |
||
|
Not Know they Existed/Available |
Y |
0.200 (0.107) |
.607 (0.017) |
|
N |
.559 (0.018) |
||
|
Unawareness about Eligibility |
Y |
0.232* (0.117) |
.599 (0.014) |
|
N |
.542 (0.024) |
||
|
Do not Need |
Y |
−0.158 (0.104) |
.562 (0.019) |
|
N |
.600 (0.016) |
||
|
Thinking Others Need More than Them |
Y |
−0.152 (0.112) |
.571 (0.015) |
|
N |
.608 (0.021) |
||
|
Those Like Them do not Use |
Y |
−0.127 (0.120) |
.560 (0.026) |
|
N |
.591 (0.013) |
||
|
Barriers to Access Resources: Lack of Knowledge about Resources |
|||
|
Emergency Grants Including CARES Act |
Y |
−0.113 (0.097) |
.568 (0.018) |
|
N |
.596 (0.015) |
||
|
Controls |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Note. Controls include race, gender, childhood SES, first-generation status, marital status, living with a spouse/partner, parenthood status, birth year, the current level of study, years in college, and region and sector of the students’ college/university. N = 2,864.
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.
Finally, NCPR students had a higher likelihood of suffering from any basic needs insecurity if they noted encountering issues, including taking care of dependents during the pandemic (p < .001), a close friend/family member sickness or death with COVID-19 (p < .001), employment loss (p < .01), struggling to pay rent during the pandemic (p < .001), struggling to afford returning home during the pandemic (p < .001), not knowing how to apply for campus resources (p < .05), being too embarrassed to apply for these programs (p < .05), or unawareness about their eligibility criteria (p < .05) compared to their peers who did not experience these challenges, all else equal. On the other hand, students who reported that they did not use campus resources because they did not need them (p < .001) were statistically less likely to experience basic needs insecurity than their counterparts (Table 7).
Barriers to Access Campus Resources for NCPR Students
Several barriers to accessing campus resources were significantly associated with experiencing at least one of the basic needs insecurity measures. Considering the importance of campus resources for NCPR students, I conducted logistic regression analyses to predict the probabilities of experiencing the following barriers: difficulty completing the application, not know how to apply, too embarrassed to apply, and unawareness about eligibility (see Table 8).
Results indicate several statistically significant predictors of experiencing these barriers, including race/ethnicity, years in college, and first-generation status. All else equal, Hispanic/Latinx/Chicanx, Middle Eastern/North African/Arab, Southeast Asian, other Asian/Asian American, and Multiracial NCPR students had a 12% (p < .01), 16% (p < .01), 18% (p < .001), 17% (p < .001), and 15% (p < .01) likelihood of reporting difficulty completing the application for accessing campus resources. However, their White/Caucasian peers’ likelihood of facing this issue was 6%. Students in their fifth year or above were less likely than freshmen (10% vs. 14%, p < .05) to face this barrier.
|
Potential Barriers |
Any Basic Needs Insecurity |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins (SE) |
||
|
Responsibilities Toward Dependents |
|||
|
Pay Childcare |
Y |
0.488 (0.557) |
.825 (0.079) |
|
N |
.744 (0.011) |
||
|
Taking Care of Dependents During the Pandemic |
Y |
0.453*** (0.116) |
.796 (0.016) |
|
N |
.713 (0.014) |
||
|
School Closure and Sickness due to COVID-19 |
|||
|
Campus Closure |
Y |
0.139 (0.130) |
.751 (0.012) |
|
N |
.724 (0.024) |
||
|
Sick with COVID |
Y |
0.302 (0.252) |
.796 (0.040) |
|
N |
.743 (0.012) |
||
|
A Close Friend/Family Member Sick/Died with COVID |
Y |
0.505*** (0.115) |
.800 (0.015) |
|
N |
.707 (0.015) |
||
|
Financial Issues |
|||
|
Employment Loss |
Y |
0.362** (0.107) |
.781 (0.014) |
|
N |
.713 (0.015) |
||
|
Struggled to Pay Rent During the Pandemic |
Y |
1.964*** (0.131) |
.902 (0.010) |
|
N |
.563 (0.015) |
||
|
Struggled to Afford Returning Home During the Pandemic |
Y |
0.979*** (0.117) |
.844 (0.013) |
|
N |
0.362** (0.107) |
.670 (0.015) |
|
|
Barriers to Access Resources: Reasons Why Not Using Campus Supports |
|||
|
Difficulty Completing the Application |
Y |
0.123 (0.170) |
.766 (0.028) |
|
N |
.743 (0.012) |
||
|
Not Know How to Apply |
Y |
0.264* (0.120) |
.772 (0.015) |
|
N |
.722 (0.016) |
||
|
Too Embarrassed to Apply |
Y |
0.302* (0.150) |
.790 (0.023) |
|
N |
.736 (0.012) |
||
|
Not Know they Existed/Available |
Y |
0.194 (0.112) |
.764 (0.014) |
|
N |
.727 (0.016) |
||
|
Unawareness about Eligibility |
Y |
0.245* (0.122) |
.758 (0.012) |
|
N |
.711 (0.022) |
||
|
Do not Need |
Y |
−0.401*** (0.108) |
.700 (0.018) |
|
N |
.777 (0.013) |
||
|
Thinking Others Need More than Them |
Y |
−0.231 (0.121) |
.731 (0.014) |
|
N |
.774 (0.018) |
||
|
Those Like Them do not Use |
Y |
−0.036 (0.126) |
.741 (0.022) |
|
N |
.748 (0.012) |
||
|
Barriers to Access Resources: Lack of Knowledge About Resources |
|||
|
Emergency Grants Including CARES Act |
Y |
−0.069 (0.102) |
.739 (0.016) |
|
N |
.752 (0.014) |
||
|
Controls |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Note. Controls include race, gender, childhood SES, first-generation status, marital status, living with a spouse/partner, parenthood status, birth year, the current level of study, years in college, and region and sector of the students’ college/university. N = 2,864.
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.
The probability of reporting not knowing how to apply was 52% (p < .05) and 51% (p < .05) for Southeast Asian and other Asian/Asian American NCPR students. By contrast, this probability was 43% for White/Caucasian NCPR students, net of background factors. Moreover, NCPR students who identified themselves Middle Eastern/North African/Arab (p < .01) and other Asian/Asian American (p < .01) were 2 and 1.5 times more likely than White/Caucasian students to be too embarrassed to apply, respectively. Finally, first-generation NCPR students had a 71% likelihood of being unaware of the eligibility criteria for using campus resources whereas their continuing-generation counterparts had a 76% likelihood of reporting this barrier (p < .01), net of background factors.
Limitations
Like most research using secondary data, this study has several limitations. For one, the #RealCollege Survey dataset does not distinguish documented or undocumented immigrant students from international students, three distinctively different groups whose immigration and residency status can have varying impacts on their lived experiences. Moreover, despite examining a comprehensive set of control variables and running several robustness checks, omitted variable bias remains a concern. The low response rate (11%) also creates the possibility of biased estimates, especially for prevalence rates. There is, however, some uncertainty as to the direction of the bias. It is possible that students with basic needs insecurity are more likely to participate in the survey because of their personal interests. Meanwhile, struggling students may be less likely to check their email and respond to surveys, resulting in conservative estimates due to an underestimation of the number of students who are housing and food insecure. Therefore, it would be helpful to include measures of basic needs insecurity in future nationally representative surveys of college students (e.g., the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study; Broton et al., 2022) and collect more detailed information on students’ citizenship and residency status in order to mitigate these weaknesses and improve our understanding of these critical topics.
|
Background Factors |
Barriers to Access Campus Resources |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Difficulty Completing the Application |
Not Know How to Apply |
Too Embarrassed to Apply |
Unawareness about Eligibility |
|||||
|
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins |
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins |
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins |
Coefficient (SE) |
Predicted Margins |
|
|
Race/ Ethnic Background |
||||||||
|
African American or Black |
0.015 (0.322) |
.065 (0.014) |
−0.038 (0.174) |
.419 (0.030) |
−0.392 (0.256) |
.095 (0.017) |
−0.075 (0.194) |
.733 (0.027) |
|
Hispanic, Latinx, or Chicanx |
0.712** (0.257) |
.122 (0.012) |
0.122 (0.145) |
.459 (0.020) |
0.158 (0.199) |
.154 (0.014) |
−0.008 (0.163) |
.746 (0.017) |
|
Middle Eastern, North African or Arab |
0.986** (0.349) |
.155 (0.035) |
0.095 (0.225) |
.452 (0.047) |
0.909** (0.268) |
.279 (0.042) |
−0.195 (0.241) |
.709 (0.042) |
|
Southeast Asian |
1.145*** (0.269) |
.177 (0.020) |
0.349* (0.159) |
.515 (0.026) |
0.322 (0.216) |
.177 (0.020) |
−0.023 (0.177) |
.743 (0.023) |
|
Other Asian or Asian American |
1.070*** (0.257) |
.166 (0.016) |
0.309* (0.146) |
.506 (0.021) |
0.535 ** (0.196) |
.210 (0.017) |
−0.088 (0.160) |
.730 (0.018) |
|
American Indian, Native American, or Indigenous |
0.929 (1.138) |
.148 (0.140) |
−0.071 (0.805) |
.411 (0.193) |
0.878 (0.890) |
.273 (0.173) |
−0.872 (0.805) |
.553 (0.196) |
|
Pacific Islander |
1.460 a (0.943) |
.228 (0.161) |
0.837 (0.910) |
.634 (0.209) |
0.679 (0.926) |
.235 (0.164) |
0.474 (1.134) |
.826 (0.162) |
|
Multiracial |
0.964** (0.282) |
.152 (0.021) |
0.304 (0.171) |
.504 (0.031) |
0.367 (0.227) |
.184 (0.023) |
0.254 (0.199) |
.792 (0.025) |
|
White or Caucasian (Reference) |
.064 (0.014) |
.429 (0.029) |
.135 (0.020) |
.747 (0.025) |
||||
|
Gender |
||||||||
|
Female |
−0.092 (0.117) |
.120 (0.008) |
0.035 (0.082) |
.479 (0.013) |
−0.115 (0.105) |
.160 (0.009) |
0.158 (0.091) |
.757 (0.011) |
|
Non-binary |
0.438 (0.460) |
.189 (0.069) |
−0.274 (0.387) |
.403 (0.092) |
0.461 (0.434) |
.253 (0.081) |
−0.480 (0.396) |
.622 (0.092) |
|
Prefer to Self-Describe |
0.274 (0.614) |
.165 (0.084) |
−0.532 (0.515) |
.343 (0.115) |
−0.315 (0.680) |
.135 (0.079) |
−0.099 (0.551) |
.707 (0.113) |
|
Prefer not to answer |
0.469 (0.459) |
.193 (0.070) |
0.110 (0.396) |
.498 (0.098) |
−0.338 (0.523) |
.132 (0.059) |
0.161 (0.456) |
.758 (0.083) |
|
Male (Reference) |
.130 (0.010) |
.470 (0.016) |
.176 (0.012) |
.727 (0.014) |
||||
|
Level of Postsecondary Education |
||||||||
|
Undergraduate Student |
0.085 (0.164) |
.127 (0.009) |
0.007 (0.120) |
.475 (0.013) |
0.138 (0.152) |
.172 (0.010) |
0.0004 (0.134) |
.744 (0.011) |
|
Graduate Student (Reference) |
.122 (0.015) |
.473 (0.023) |
.153 (0.016) |
.744 (0.020) |
||||
|
Years in College |
||||||||
|
Two Years |
−0.099 (0.150) |
.128 (0.013) |
−0.179 (0.109) |
.447 (0.021) |
−0.009 (0.146) |
.156 (0.015) |
−0.127 (0.119) |
.706 (0.019) |
|
Three Years |
0.064 (0.168) |
.147 (0.017) |
−0.022 (0.124) |
.486 (0.024) |
0.261 (0.157) |
.195 (0.019) |
0.107 (0.140) |
.752 (0.021) |
|
Four Years |
−0.190 (0.210) |
.118 (0.019) |
−0.055 (0.145) |
.478 (0.030) |
0.114 (0.186) |
.172 (0.022) |
0.212 (0.168) |
.771 (0.025) |
|
Five Years or More |
−0.393* (0.182) |
.099 (0.013) |
−0.092 (0.123) |
.469 (0.023) |
0.085 (0.157) |
.168 (0.016) |
0.240 (0.140) |
.776 (0.018) |
|
One Year or Less (Reference) |
.139 (0.013) |
.492 (0.019) |
.157 (0.013) |
.731 (0.016) |
||||
|
Generational Status |
||||||||
|
First-Gen Student |
0.004 (0.122) |
.126 (0.011) |
−0.038 (0.087) |
.468 (0.017) |
−0.016 (0.111) |
.165 (0.013) |
−0.256** (0.097) |
.710 (0.016) |
|
Continuing-Gen Student (Reference) |
.126 (0.008) |
.477 (0.012) |
.167 (0.009) |
.760 (0.010) |
||||
|
Controls |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
Note. Controls include childhood SES, marital status, living with a spouse or partner, being a parent, primary caregiver, or guardian, birth year, region and sector of the students’ college/university, and basic needs security status. N = 2,864
a The background factor of Pacific Islanders was a significant predictor of difficulty completing application (p < .05) before listwise deletion of missing data, when N was 3,207.
*p ≤ .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.
Discussion and Implications
Despite the increased awareness of basic needs insecurity among postsecondary students in recent years, there is a lack of perception and adequate response to related challenges among NCPR students. These students were significantly more likely to encounter basic needs insecurity compared to CPR students, net of background factors. These findings verify the potential role of students’ citizenship/residency status in experiencing basic needs insecurity and are consistent with prior research (Crutchfield & Maguire, 2018; El Zein et al., 2018; Enriquez et al., 2019; Farahbakhsh et al., 2017; Hanbazaza et al., 2016; West, 2019).
This study also revealed how interconnected barriers were associated with facing basic needs insecurity, depicting the complexity of NCPR students’ unique experiences (Brothers et al., 2020; Mammen et al., 2009; Nation et al., 2020; Peng et al., 2018; Sano et al., 2011). All else equal, NCPR students who reported experiencing barriers, including taking care of dependents, a close friend/family member sickness or death with COVID-19, employment loss, struggling to pay rent, and struggling to afford returning home during the COVID-19 pandemic, had a higher likelihood of reporting food insecurity, housing insecurity, and any basic needs insecurity compared to students who did not face such issues. Challenges such as financial hardship, income loss, health issues, and losing loved ones were observed among postsecondary students in several studies related to the pandemic as well (Baker-Smith et al., 2021; Foresman, 2020; Glantsman et al., 2022; Goldrick-Rab, 2021; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Soria, Horgos, Chirikov, et al., 2020; Soria, Horgos, Jones-White, et al., 2020; Wolfers, 2020). My findings confirm the association between these barriers and experiencing basic needs insecurity among NCPR students.
Another challenge that the COVID-19 pandemic presented to some NCPR students was the voluntary or enforced condition of leaving the United States. Although several case studies highlight international students’ travel restrictions such as legal limitations and health related concerns (Beckstein, 2020; Veerasamy & Ammigan, 2021), they fail to consider high costs of international trips. This study sheds light on the positive association between the unaffordable travel expenses to return “home” and experiencing basic needs insecurity for NCPR students. Future research should explore the negative impacts of travel restrictions, including the financial burden, and the uncertainty that SEVP’s short-lived policy to enforce international students and their dependents leave the United States during the pandemic (Castiello-Gutiérrez & Li, 2020; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2020). Higher education institutions should also recognize these restrictions and consider them while developing and improving their basic needs and financial aid interventions. Providing emergency housing, assisting NCPR students in finding affordable housing on- and off-campus, and disseminating information about the housing market and rental/lease agreements upon students’ admission and during orientation are some examples of beneficial interventions.
Learning what resources are available and how to access them when necessary is one of the keys to navigating the higher education system. I examined several barriers to accessing basic needs resources, including lack of information, highlighted in the existing literature. Prior studies differ in conceptualizing and measuring the lack of knowledge about basic needs resources. Some studies limit this barrier to not knowing whether these resources exist on campus (e.g., Crutchfield & Maguire, 2018, 2019; Jefferson et al., 2022; Kim, 2018). Others consider unawareness about how to access these resources as a barrier (e.g., El Zein et al., 2018; El Zein et al., 2022; Fortin et al., 2021; J. A. King, 2017). Moreover, some scholars do not specify what they mean when they indicate students need more information about available resources (e.g., Henry, 2020). My study suggests that the main challenge for NCPR students with basic needs insecurity was not lack of knowledge about the existence of resources. Nevertheless, NCPR students who reported barriers such as not knowing how to apply for campus resources, having difficulties completing the related applications, and unawareness of their eligibility criteria were significantly more likely to face basic needs insecurity compared to their counterparts, all else equal. Consistent with the existing literature (El Zein et al., 2018; El Zein et al., 2022; Fortin et al., 2021; Henry, 2017, 2020; C. King, 2017), I also found positive associations between facing basic needs insecurity and feeling embarrassed to apply for campus resources, net of background factors. Taken together, these findings suggest that higher education institutions should not assume that providing campus resources and disseminating information about their existence is enough to connect the students in need to these resources. They should take additional steps to destigmatize seeking help, enable students to apply for the resources, and provide adequate student-centered support. Future research should continue to investigate students’ level of information about various aspects of resources and to consider the impacts of different ways that students receive this information (e.g., friends, faculty, and orientation sessions), which might be even more influential on students’ decision to access these resources.
Another fact that can challenge students’ access to available resources is higher education professionals’ and practitioners’ beliefs on students’ personal responsibility for their material hardship and “deservingness” to receive assistance, which informs their practices. According to Broton et al. (2020), some practitioners, who see students with basic needs insecurity as the source of their own challenges, create barriers that inhibit students from accessing resources with the irrational excuse that they intend to prevent the “untrustworthy” students from exploiting their institution (p. 18). These beliefs can be one of the reasons behind students’ challenges in accessing resources (e.g., difficulty completing the applications for accessing resources), which are positively associated with experiencing basic needs insecurity. Thus, higher education professionals should receive training on creating an equitable and inclusive environment with an understanding of students’ lived realities and structural restrictions, given the potential impact of their beliefs.
Considering campus resources’ less restricted accessibility for NCPR students compared to federally-funded safety net programs, they can play a critical role in addressing these students’ basic needs insecurity. Consequently, the potential barriers to accessing these resources should be taken seriously. My findings indicate that NCPR students of color, including Hispanic/Latinx/Chicanx, Middle Eastern/North African/Arab, Southeast Asian, other Asian/Asian American, and Multiracial were significantly more likely than Whites/Caucasians to have trouble completing the application for accessing campus resources, a barrier associated with food insecurity. Relevantly, Freedman et al. (2015) found that many food-insecure Hispanic adults attending English as a Second Language Classes did not access food assistance programs primarily due to lack of program awareness. Limited information about resources might cause difficulty in filling out the applications. Therefore, colleges and universities should provide NCPR students with required information, assist them with applying for these programs, and simplify this process as much as possible. This task can be a bigger issue for first-year students who have less experience with the application process, which might explain why I found higher likelihood of reporting difficulty completing the applications for NCPR freshmen compared to students in their fifth year or above, net of background factors. Another explanation for this finding can be lower retention among students who know how to navigate accessing resources (i.e., selection bias). Therefore, this finding highlights the necessity of a longitudinal study about challenges that students face in order to meet their basic needs while attending college.
This study also revealed that first-generation NCPR students had a lower likelihood to be unaware of campus resources’ eligibility criteria compared to their counterparts, net of background factors. This finding can be a result of higher education institutions’ efforts to connect first-generation students to available resources. However, defining first-generation students as students whose parents have no formal education beyond a high school diploma or equivalent (Mehta et al., 2011) fails to consider the unfamiliarity of continuing-generation students’ parents with the American higher education system if they have not attended one. Therefore, considering a more nuanced nature for NCPR students’ generational status by collecting more detailed information about parental education can benefit future qualitative and quantitative investigations.
Not knowing how to apply for campus support, a barrier associated with facing housing insecurity and basic needs insecurity in general, was more common among Southeast Asian and other Asian/Asian American NCPR students than their White/Caucasian counterparts, all else equal. Moreover, other Asian/Asian American and Middle Eastern/North African/Arab were more likely than Whites/Caucasians to report being too embarrassed to apply. The findings revealed this barrier’s association with food insecurity and any basic needs insecurity as well. Encountering various barriers to accessing campus resources among NCPR students of color confirms the ongoing challenges and discrimination experienced by these students while attending U.S. higher education institutions (Lee, 2007; Lee & Rice, 2007). According to Lee and Rice (2007), Middle Eastern, African, East Asian, Latin American, and Indian students encounter more severe difficulties than White students from Canada and Europe in U.S. higher education institutions. Non-U.S. citizen students of color experience “neo-racism” in almost every aspect of their lives, such as “campus social interactions, interactions with faculty and administration, denial of funding or job opportunities, and in off-campus interactions such as housing and shopping” (Lee & Rice, 2007, p. 393). This discrimination, which emerges in different forms of racial/ethnic profiling or stereotyping, can negatively influence NCPR students’ access to resources. Thus, it is necessary to continue exploring the potential structural barriers to these students’ basic needs security in future research.
As mentioned in the Limitations section, future research would benefit from collecting more detailed information about the students’ and their dependents’ immigration and visa status in order to distinguish between international and immigrant students and account for their unique life circumstances stemming from their citizenship and residency status. While I attempted to control for the potential impacts of dependents by including variables regarding students’ marital status and whether they lived with a spouse/partner, more information is needed about dependents’ status and related potential barriers imposed on their families. Furthermore, higher education leaders and stakeholders should pay a specific attention to students’ citizenship and residency status, identify and address NCPR students’ barriers to meeting their basic needs, and connect these students to the available resources. Educating faculty and staff to recognize NCPR students’ unique needs and legal and social restrictions can be a helpful step to further humanize higher education.
Conclusion
This study set out to explore how prevalent the issue of basic needs insecurity is among postsecondary students based on their citizenship/residency status. After finding higher rates of experiencing basic needs insecurity among NCPR students compared to their counterparts, I examined multiple barriers to NCPR students’ basic needs security. The findings suggest that higher education leaders in both student and academic affairs should consider the intersection of students’ citizenship/residency status with other dimensions of their identities such as race/ethnicity, first-generation status, level of education, and number of years in college while enhancing the existing interventions in order to ensure all students’ wellbeing and academic success. Additional on- and off-campus policies and practices should be tailored to the needs of undocumented immigrant and international students, informed by the structural restrictions impacting this population.
The association of experiencing basic needs insecurity with the barriers such as taking care of dependents, a close friend/family member sickness or death with COVID-19, employment loss, struggling to pay rent, struggling to afford returning home during the COVID-19 pandemic is also alarming. Thus, the findings and related implications of this study can assist higher education professionals and stakeholders address the inequities within higher education as the pandemic and related economic crisis continue to influence students. Higher education institutions must be prepared to make informed decisions to ensure that all students’ basic needs are met and provide more inclusive support at all times, including worldwide emergencies.
Author Note
Elmira Jangjou is now an analyst at Ithaka S+R.
This article constitutes a component of Jangjou’s doctoral dissertation research. This research was conducted without funding.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Elmira Jangjou.
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1 I have gained access to this dataset as a #RealCollege™ Research Collaborative Scholar. Due to several changes in the overall questionnaire each year and the additional survey questions about the COVID-19 pandemic, I only used the 2020 survey data for this study.
2 The sample only includes students who are pursuing associate’s, bachelor’s, and graduate degrees. High school equivalency/GED, no credential/degree, and certificate/license (15,215 respondents) are excluded from the analytic sample.
3 This sample included 86,260 (95.4%) CPR and 4,169 (4.6%) NCPR students. This sample is used for robustness checks for the omitted variables bias.
4 Due to excluding the missing values from the analyses, omitted variable bias is a concern. In addition to accounting for a comprehensive set of control variables, I conducted several robustness checks by running all the analyses once before listwise deletion and once with the final analytic sample. The significant findings mostly remained unchanged. The only discrepancy is reported in the results section (Table 8) for full transparency and acknowledged in the limitations of this study.