Empty Stomachs, Restless Nights: Linking Housing Instability, Breakfast Skips, and Sleep Deficits to Academic Outcomes

Background

Housing instability remains a pressing concern for U.S. youth. Around 1.1 million students experience unstable housing, accounting for 2.2 percent of all students in prekindergarten to twelfth grade. Housing instability is often linked to adverse outcomes, including inadequate nutrition and insufficient sleep, both of which can undermine academic success, which in turn predicts social mobility in adulthood. Building upon the existing literature, the current study sets out to jointly examine the relationship among housing instability, breakfast consumption, sleep duration, and academic performance within a single, comprehensive model

Using data from the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Study (YRBS), we examined whether breakfast consumption, sleep duration, and academic performance differ among students experiencing unstable housing and their stably housed peers. We then explored if academic performance was associated with housing status, sleep duration, and academic performance after controlling for demographic characteristics. Lastly, we investigated how housing instability influences academic performance through sleep duration and breakfast consumption.

Methods

A final sample of 14,541 high school students (grades 9 to 12) completed the 2023 YRBS. Housing status was assessed via a self-reported response to a question about the usual sleeping location in the past 30 days. Breakfast frequency was measured by the number of days students ate breakfast during the past week, and sleep duration was assessed by average hours of sleep on school nights. Academic performance was determined by self-reported grades over the last 12 months. After descriptive analyses and comparisons between stable and unstable groups, we performed nested linear regression to estimate associations among housing status, breakfast, sleep, and grades, controlling for age, sex assigned at birth, and race. Finally, a parallel mediation analysis was conducted to test the mediation model.

Results

Approximately 3.42% of participants reported housing instability. Compared to their stably housed peers, unstably housed students ate breakfast less frequently (t = -5.58, p < 0.001. Cohen’s d = 0.30), slept fewer hours on school nights (t = -7.81, p < 0.001. Cohen’s d = 0.37), and reported lower academic achievement (t = -7.87, p < 0.001. Cohen’s d = 0.44). Regression results indicated that housing instability was significantly associated with poorer academic performance (b = -0.40, t = -6.48, p < 0.001). Moreover, the overall mediation model shows that both breakfast frequency (Indirect Effect = -0.05, 95%CI [-0.070; -0.034]) and sleep duration (Indirect Effect = -0.05, 95%CI [-0.073; -0.032]) partially accounted for the association of unstable housing on academic achievement.

Conclusion and Implications

Housing instability negatively impacts academic performance, in part due to shorter sleep and less frequent breakfast consumption. These findings highlight the need for comprehensive interventions and underscore housing stability as a key factor in promoting student success. Policies enabling universal breakfast and later school start times may improve outcomes for unstably housed youth. Ultimately, to improve academic outcomes at scale, administrators and policymakers should utilize strategies that combine housing interventions with supportive services around nutrition and sleep to address the disparities in school settings.