Food Skills and Resilience: An Exploration of Self-Sufficiency During the Coronavirus Pandemic

This study was designed to examine the associations between food skills, resilience, and coping during the Covid-19 pandemic. Between April and June of 2020, a sample of 154 students, faculty, and staff from Arizona State University were surveyed. Each respondent was administered a survey containing demographic questions, a food skill questionnaire, and the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS). Results indicate that food skill was correlated with resilience (p<0.001) at an r=0.364 and r2=0.1243 and that resilience was correlated with coping during the Covid-19 pandemic (p<0.001) at an r=0.455. Correlations were also run between resilience score and the separate domains of food skill score: all domains remained significantly associated with resilience score (p<0.001) with a r=0.340 and r2=0.1173 for ‘Food Selection and Planning,’ r=0.312 and r2=0.0958 for ‘Food Preparation,’ and r=0.294 and r2=0.0767 for ‘Food Safety.’ Data seems to be consistent with contemporary research suggesting positive associations between diet quality and physiological resilience and positive associations between resilience and coping during the Covid-19 pandemic.