Liliana began experiencing abuse as a young child and it followed her through adulthood. She explained that the abuse started while she was very young; her mother was an alcoholic and nearly beat her to death. The beatings she received from her mother became so bad that she had to go live with her grandmother. Furthermore, a family friend sexually abused Liliana as a child. As an adolescent her friends held her down while a man raped her.

A life course perspective takes into account the intergenerational aspects of poverty that affect child health and well being and contributes to an understanding of child food insecurity not as a static event experienced over a month or a year but rather as a series of experiences that reverberate through adulthood. With a life course perspective, childhood experiences are shown to influence and shape adult health, ability to work, and earning potential.