childrens experiences of food insecurity also include cognitive awareness of household food hardships and psychological strain related not only to running out of food but to awareness of parents difficulties meeting household food needs another difference is that adult experiences of food insecurity are conditioned on inadequate resources for food but child experiences are not and are instead grounded in the household social and food environment eg quality of interactions parental affect and behaviour and foods available for children adultchild differences are also possible in the ordering of experiences adults in the united states but not in all countries generally report that worry about running out of food is the least severe experience of food insecurity followed by compromises in quality and quantity and with hunger being the most severe level of food insecurity