Objective.

To analyze the association between the social context (demographic, socioeconomic and social support factors) and moderate-severe food and nutritional insecurity in families with children aged 0-59 months enrolled in municipal kindergartens in the state of Paraíba, Brazil.

Materials and methods.

We conducted a cross-sectional study in Brazilian municipalities prioritized for the prevention of childhood obesity. A questionnaire was used to collect information on the social context of the family (demographic profile of the child, socioeconomic situation and social support) as well as the Brazilian food insecurity scale. The association between the independent variables and moderate-severe food and nutrition insecurity was determined by applying Poisson regression to estimate crude and adjusted prevalence ratios and their respective 95% confidence intervals.

Results.

We included 382 families; 27.2% had moderate-severe food and nutrition insecurity. In addition, dysfunctional families with children under 24 months, from less affluent classes, beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program and without social support (material, emotional/informational and interaction) were more likely to present the outcome.

Conclusions.

Our results show that 27.2% of the families had moderate-severe food and nutritional insecurity, were beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program, dysfunctional and did not have social support. Therefore, the identification of these factors would be useful to improve family food and nutritional security.

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