Inconclusive prospective associations between food insecurity, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms: A comment on Baek and Yoon (2026)

Based on findings with the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), Baek and Yoon concluded that food insecurity and poor psychological health exacerbates each other in a vicious cycle. However, the RI-CLPM is susceptible to spurious findings. Here, we analyzed data with alternative models and found divergent decreasing and increasing prospective effects between food insecurity and self-esteem and depressive symptoms. Hence, the findings by Baek and Yoon may have been spurious and their conclusions premature. It is important for researchers to bear in mind that correlations, including effects in the RI-CLPM, in observational (i.e., non-experimental) data may be spurious. We recommend researchers to fit alternative models to data and to base conclusions on a juxtaposition of findings.