Ignore the moans: eating as a family does teens good

By Belinda Goldsmith

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Want to bond with your broody teenagers? Try eating dinner with them five times a week, with a poll finding this keeps them off drugs and alcohol -- and the teens also enjoy it.

A survey released Thursday reaffirmed previous studies that found teenagers who ate dinner as a family five or more times a week are less likely to use drugs, smoke, or drink alcohol than peers who ate with their families two times or less a week.

But the poll of 1,063 teenagers and 550 parents conducted by QEV Analytics found contrary to many parents' expectations, most teenagers actually wanted to eat with their families.

"Overall about 84 percent of the kids said they would prefer to have dinner with their parents," said Elizabeth Planet, project manager of the survey commissioned by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at New York's Columbia University.

"These are teenagers whose parents will tell you they are difficult and don't want to talk. This is not the sense we are getting from the kids themselves. They prefer it."

The survey comes amid a growing push by some parents and family groups for the return of family meals which have declined sharply since the 1970s and 1999.

A UNICEF report earlier this year put the United States at the bottom of the richest nations when it came to eating as families with only 65 percent of 15-year-olds eating the main meal of the day with their parents several times a week. In France, Italy and Russia, it was more than 90 percent.

The fourth CASA survey on the importance of family dinners found that 59 percent of teens surveyed between April 2 and May 13 reported having dinner with their families at least five times a week.