Inside the Black Box: Pathways Between Food Security and Household Composition in Urban China

The relationship between household composition and food security has been extensively studied, yet findings remain divergent, and the mechanisms linking the two are rarely made explicit. This leaves the relationship in something of a “black box.” This paper addresses three indirect pathways that may mediate the relationship: food affordability, household time constraints, and family food skills. Drawing on a citywide household survey of 1,210 households in Nanjing, China, and using generalized structural equation modelling, the study tests whether the link between household composition and food insecurity is mediated by these three variables. The analysis of food security focuses on the quality and cultural desirability of food, dimensions poorly captured by universalizing metrics such as the FIES but especially salient in Chinese cities. The results confirm that all three pathways are significantly associated with food insecurity and reveal that different household types are exposed to different mechanisms. Unaffordability heightens risk for single-person households and childless couples; the presence of a homemaker or pensioner is strongly protective, particularly in multigenerational and intergenerational households; and limited food-preparation capacity compounds vulnerability among single-person households. By disaggregating these pathways, the study shows that household composition shapes food security both directly and indirectly, and offers a transferable framework for research in other urban contexts in low- and middle-income countries.