Research
Food insecurity, defined as the limited access to adequate food in both quantity and quality, remain largely overlooked in high-income countries. Yet it affects around one in thirteen people in Europe, including Belgium. Food insecurity can have major health consequences, both physical and mental. Among adolescents, its impact on mental health is still understudied, while adolescence is a critical developmental period during which vulnerability to mental health difficulties increases. Besides, migration is often associated with greater vulnerability to both food insecurity and poorer mental health through the accumulation of economic, social, and cultural disadvantages.
The ROOTS project, fully named Food insecurity as a determinant of adolescent mental health among natives and immigrants: a multi-level study from Brussels-Capital Region to Europe, aims to investigate the interplay between food insecurity and migration as determinants of adolescent mental health. Using data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) surveys, combined with social and environmental data sources, the project will first examine how migration background influences the association between food insecurity and mental health among adolescents in Belgium. It will then investigate how broader national contexts across Europe may mitigate or exacerbate these associations. Finally, this project will explore how school and neighborhood food environments in Brussels may contribute to reducing or reinforcing these inequalities.
By combining perspectives from public health, sociology, psychology, nutrition, epidemiology and policy analysis, ROOTS will generate new insights into how food insecurity may affect adolescent mental health across different European contexts. Its findings will provide evidence to support schools, public health professionals and policymakers in developing actions to buffer potential effects of food insecurity on mental health among young people. While falling in the framework of Sustainable Development Goals 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and the project aligns with EU public health priorities. It will also support the Brussels-Capital Region’s initiatives, particularly the Health and Wellness and Healthy Eating for All challenges.
Biography
Manon Rouche is a researcher specializing in the social epidemiology of nutrition. After completing a PhD in Public Health on socioeconomic and sociocultural inequalities in adolescent diet, she received a two-year Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI) World Excellence fellowship to pursue postdoctoral research at Amsterdam UMC on diet during the transition to adulthood. Since returning to Belgium, she has contributed to research projects in nutrition and adolescent health. She is now combining her expertise in nutrition, health inequalities and adolescent health and wellbeing through the ROOTS project at the School of Public Health (Université libre de Bruxelles), which investigates the links between food insecurity, migration and adolescent mental health.