Scientific evidence of the mental health benefits to children of eating meals with their families first emerged in the 1990s when the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, New York, began surveying various family behaviors and correlating them with the risk of adolescent substance use and misuse. They found strong evidence that when families ate dinner together five or more times weekly (we’ll call this “frequent family dinners”), their adolescents were far less likely to initiate alcohol and cigarette use and less likely to regularly abuse alcohol and drugs. Subsequent studies have demonstrated that the protective effect may be greater for girls than boys and may be greater for alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana than for other drugs. But earlier age of first use of substances substantially raises the risk of later addiction, so the health benefits of any delay in first use are significant.
Since CASA’s first studies in the 1990s, researchers began paying closer attention to family meals and a variety of psychiatric problems in youth. They demonstrated that frequent family dinners lowered the risk of other externalizing behaviors in youth, including risky sexual behaviors, threats of physical harm, aggression, fights leading to injury, and carrying or using a weapon.1,2 Frequent family dinners are associated with lower rates of disordered eating behaviors and disordered body image in adolescent girls.3,4 Multiple studies have found a powerful association between frequent family dinners and lower rates of depressive symptoms and suicide attempts in both male and female adolescents.1 Frequent family dinners even have been shown to mitigate against the risks of multiple poor health and academic outcomes in children with high adverse childhood experience (ACE) scores.5
Beyond protecting against problems, frequent family meals are associated with improved well-being and performance. Studies have demonstrated positive associations between frequent family meals and higher levels of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and well-being in adolescents, both male and female. They have consistently found significant associations between frequent family meals and higher grade point averages, commitment to learning, and rich vocabularies in children and adolescents, even after adjustment for demographic and other familial factors.6 And children are not the only ones who benefit. Frequent family meals even have been shown to be associated with higher self-reported levels of well-being and self-esteem, and lower levels of stress among parents.7,8 While investing the time in preparing meals and eating them together may sound stressful, it’s clear the benefits outweigh the risks for parents as well as for their children.
Dr. Susan D. Swick
It is important to set the framework for what really matters in a family dinner so that your patients can enjoy all of these benefits. Parents may assume that the meal must be prepared from scratch with only fresh, local, or organic ingredients. But what matters most is that the food is delicious and nutritious, and that the time spent eating (and preparing it) is fun, and promotes conversation and connection. Homemade food usually is more nutritious and will bring more of the physical health benefits, but many store-bought ingredients or even take-out options can be healthy and can promote time for the family to sit together and connect. If parents enjoy preparing food, then it’s worthwhile! And they should not worry about having every member of the family together at every meal. Even if only one parent and child are present for a dinner, they each will enjoy the benefits.