research with children however indicates that worry about whether parents can provide enough food may at times reflect quite severe situations this makes sense from a developmental perspective since children have less control over their food environment and childrens sense of safety depends on the reliability of parents ability to meet child needs a child may feel unhappy about reduced food quality may feel hungry when food quantity is reduced but feel most distressed when they lose confidence that in the end their parents will always find a way to feed them there is evidence that children age and older can accurately report their food security but particularly younger children are less able to report the causes of their experiences