Minimal dataset.

This study examines how household food insecurity shapes young children’s behavior problems in Singapore. The analysis is based on two waves of data collected before and during COVID-19 from a nationally representative sample of 2,601 children in the Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study (SG-LEADS, Mage = 4.5 at wave 1, Mage = 6 at wave 2). Results based on propensity score matching, fixed effects analysis and lagged-variable models show a positive association between household food insecurity and children’s behavior problems both concurrently and over a two-year period. Two mediating pathways of this association are identified—children’s dietary intake and family stress. Children in food-insecure households tend to consume fewer vegetables and more sugar-sweetened beverages and carbohydrates, which is associated with elevated behavior problems. Parents in food-insecure households exhibit greater emotional distress, diminished parental warmth, and increased punitive parenting practices, also contributing to their children’s behavior problems. The family stress pathway has a stronger explanatory power than the nutrition pathway on children’s behavior problems. This study reveals that food insecurity is a risk factor for children’s behavior problems in early childhood which can lead to later developmental vulnerabilities for children in financially deprived families.