Food for thought: The intersection between SNAP stigma, food insecurity, and gender

Abstract

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps millions of families with low incomes to afford and purchase food each year. Prior research has noted that welfare stigma—negative stereotypes about people who participate in public assistance programs—can limit SNAP participation. Stigma may also contribute to worse mental health among subgroups like male participants; qualitative evidence suggests males may struggle to accept public assistance benefits due to norms surrounding gender roles. Yet there is little research about who is most likely to experience stigma, how stigma relates to food insecurity, whether this relationship varies by gender identity, and whether stigma is associated with online shopping (which may protect against stigma). To address these gaps, we analyzed a national survey of 1383 SNAP participants about their experiences of SNAP stigma, food insecurity, and online shopping. In adjusted models, we found that male participants had 40% higher odds (95% CI: 1.09–1.80) of reporting any stigma experience compared to female participants. SNAP participants reporting stigma had over three times the odds (OR: 3.54, 95% CI: 2.60–4.81) of reporting food insecurity relative to those not reporting stigma, and male participants reporting stigma had nearly three times higher odds of food insecurity than female participants reporting stigma (OR: 2.94, 95% CI: 1.53, 5.66). In addition, stigma was not significantly associated with shopping online or using SNAP benefits online. In this national sample of SNAP participants, male respondents had greater odds of welfare stigma, experiences of stigma were associated with greater odds of food insecurity, male respondents experiencing stigma had greater odds of food insecurity compared to female respondents, and stigma was not associated with online shopping behaviors. Efforts to reframe public assistance may be needed to destigmatize programs like SNAP to both improve program uptake among non-participants and improve health outcomes among participants.