In a 2000 national YMCA poll of a research sample of American teens what would you guess teens rated as their #1 concern?

Getting into college – no
School grades and test scores – no
Peer pressure and fitting in with classmates – no
Future career or vocation – no

Are you ready for this?   Teens #1 response, “not having enough time together with parents” was their top concern!Surprised?  Children of all ages, and especially teenagers, are craving regular, uninterrupted time in conversation with their parents and family.  There is no better time or opportunity to create that connection than around the family dinner table.

We learned in the first article posted here how family mealtime can create stronger families and better communication among loved ones.   Research also shows that kids who eat together as a family four (4) or more times a week are more likely to get A’s and B’s in school.

Better Grades in School

Family mealtime appears to give students an edge in the classroom.   In a Louis Harris & Associates survey of 2000 high school seniors, students who regularly ate family dinner scored better than those students who didn’t.    The results crossed all racial lines and were a greater indicator than whether the student was in a one or two parent home.

Preschoolers also benefit from family mealtime.    Research shows language skills were significantly better among the children ages 2-5 who ate regular family dinners with their parents.   Researchers believe family dinners are an excellent opportunity for children to have longer conversations with parents and expose them to a greater vocabulary of words than they would otherwise hear except around the family table.    Researchers believe that extended conversations provide young children with a chance to think, verbally communicate, and enhance their linguistic skills.

University of Illinois research found that children ages 7 to 11 who scored well in school achievement tests spent large amounts of time together at family mealtime.   And interestingly, the students scored well whether their mom’s worked full time, part time, or not employed outside the home.

Builds Emotionally Healthy Children

Children with regular family mealtime also show better adjustment and fewer behavioral problems in school.

Harvard researchers studied 65 children over 8 years looking at which activities most fostered healthy child development:  play, story time, family activities, and other factors.   Family mealtime was found to be the most important activity to promote healthy, well adjusted children.

In addition, frequent family meals are linked to emotionally healthy teenagers in a study by psychologists Bowden and Zeisz.   They studied 527 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18.   The teens that were best adjusted had family mealtime with their parents on average five times a week.    These teens were less likely to use drugs or be depressed and were more motivated in school and had better relationships with their family and peers.   The teens who ate family mealtime less were at greater risk for using drugs and alcohol, more likely to be depressed, had difficulty getting along with others, and had trouble in school.   Bowden said that family meals seemed to play an important role in helping teens cope well with the stresses of adolescence.

The majority of research on family mealtime shows that the stability and communication at the table remains very important for kids and their positive development!

Next we’ll learn how family dinners can reduce the risk of drugs and alcohol in children according to the latest research.

What would you say has the most positive, long-term benefits to your kids:

A.  Art activities
B.  Playing sports
C.  Family meal time
D.  Church
E.  School
F.  Studying

If you guessed C. Family mealtime you are correct.   An extensive University of Michigan study of children’s time found that more meal time at home was the single strongest predictor of better achievement scores in school and fewer behavioral problems.   Meal time was far more powerful than time spent in school, studying, church, playing sports, and art activities.

In addition, research also shows that eating together is an important part of building a strong family by improving family communication.   A Washington State University article explains in a series of focus groups conducted by the Nutrition Education Network of Washington where participants said they believed the primary benefit to eating together was strengthening the family by allowing for more opportunities to talk and build relationships.

The article also cited the “Family Dinner Experiment” conducted by Oprah Winfrey.   On her television show, five families were asked to eat dinner together every night for 30 days and keep journals to record their conversations and feelings about the experience.   In the beginning, the family meals where a chore and the conversations where stilted and difficult.   By the end of the month, the families that participated said they were happy with family meal time and planned to continue on a regular basis even after the experiment was over.   The greatest surprise was how much the children really enjoyed the experience and looked forward to continuing the family meal time because it provided a dependable, uninterrupted time to talk with their parents.

That’s powerful information.   More amazing benefits to family mealtime in my next story!