Family Dinner: More than Just a Meal

Abstract

Recent research has focused on family meals, specifically dinner, as an opportunity to improve diet and the health of both children and adolescents. A handful of investigators have provided the basic research that has brought family dinner into the forefront of prescriptions for healthy diets of families. Gillman and colleagues ( 1 Gillman M.W. Rifas-Shiman S.L. Frazier A.L. Rockett H.R. Camargo Jr, C.A. Field A.E. Berkey C.S. Colditz G.A. Family dinner and diet quality among older children and adolescents. Arch Fam Med. 2000; 9: 235-240 Google Scholar ) and Neumark-Sztainer and colleagues ( 2 Neumark-Sztainer D. Hannan P.J. Story M. Croll J. Perry C. Family meal patterns: Associations with sociodemographic characteristics and improved dietary intake among adolescents. J Am Diet Assoc. 2003; 103: 317-322 Google Scholar ) analyzed diets of boys and girls and both found an association of frequency of family dinner and healthful diets. Taveras and colleagues ( 3 Taveras E.M. Rifas-Shiman S.L. Berkey C.S. Rockett H.R.H. Field A.E. Frazier A.L. Colditz G.A. Gillman M.W. Family dinner and adolescent overweight. Obes Res. 2005; 13: 900-906 Google Scholar ) then examined data for associations of family dinner with overweight status (body mass index >85th percentile for age and sex based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention standards). An inverse association with the cross-sectional analysis was found, but the longitudinal analysis was null ( 3 Taveras E.M. Rifas-Shiman S.L. Berkey C.S. Rockett H.R.H. Field A.E. Frazier A.L. Colditz G.A. Gillman M.W. Family dinner and adolescent overweight. Obes Res. 2005; 13: 900-906 Google Scholar ). In the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Sen ( 4 Sen B. Frequency of family dinner and adolescent body weight status: Evidence from the national longitudinal survey of youth, 1997. Obesity. 2006; 14: 2266-2276 Google Scholar ) found an association among white participants between frequency of family dinner and overweight status; however, no such association was found among African Americans or Hispanics. In addition, Fulkerson and colleagues ( 5 Fulkerson J.A. Story M. Mellin A. Leffert N. Neumark-Sztainer D. French S.A. Family dinner meal frequency and adolescent development: Relationships with developmental assets and high-risk behaviors. J Adolesc Health. 2006; 39: 337-345 Google Scholar ) surveyed almost 100,000 students (6th to 12th grades [ages 11 to 19 years], 86% white) across the United States and found a consistent positive association between frequency of family dinner and developmental assets (family support, peer influence, boundaries, and expectations) and an inverse association with high-risk behaviors. In a survey of participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children regarding family meals and their environment, there was the suggestion that television viewing during dinner could undo the positive effects of sitting down with family ( 6 Fitzpatrick E. Edmunds L.S. Dennison B.A. Positive effects of family dinner are undone by television viewing. J Am Diet Assoc. 2007; 107: 666-671 Google Scholar ). Family dinner may be one of the buffer systems that help parents to guide children and adolescents through the world’s many unhealthful situations, but a review of the specifics is necessary before making recommendations. H. R. H. Rockett is a nutrition research manager, Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA.