Family Meals May Reduce Likelihood of Girls Developing Eating Disorders

Families are busy. Parents and children run from piano lessons to soccer practice, then dash to the drive-thru before they get home to begin studying and completing homework. Parents find it difficult to prioritize which activities their child should enjoy, but new research is casting a spotlight on one part of family life that should be given a place of honor.

A new study reveals that family mealtime may drastically reduce the chances that adolescent females will develop an eating disorder. The study’s lead author, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph.D., M.P.H., R. D. of the University of Minnesota, and her colleagues reported the findings in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The researchers found that girls who sat down to a family meal several days per week were 29 percent less likely than girls in families who ate on the fly to engage in disordered eating behaviors. Even after adjusting for confounding factors, the girls who ate with their families participated less in behaviors such as purging or using diet pills and diuretics five years later. Binge eating and other disordered eating behaviors also tended to be reduced among girls who experienced regular family meals.

The findings add additional momentum to a growing body of research that encourages the benefits of a daily family meal. The research is showing that family meals play an important role in promoting good health and well-being in adolescent girls.

The researchers involved with the study believe that healthcare professionals can play an important role in encouraging families to make daily meals together a priority. Dr. Neumark-Sztainer adds that healthcare professionals can help families set a realistic goal for eating together and get creative with busy schedules.
The researchers believe that the benefits are the result of eating any meal of the day together. Families that are very busy in the evenings or parents that work evenings can plan a breakfast meal together.
The study was the second part of a two-phase Project EAT (Eating Among Teens) report that showed in previous research that weight control behaviors increased from 14.5 percent to 23.9 percent as girls moved from middle to late adolescence.
The longitudinal phase of the project followed 1,386 female and 1,130 male middle and high school students from 31 schools in Minnesota to assess eating and weight-control behaviors.
The longitudinal phase showed that while female adolescents were greatly impacted by the presence of a family meal in the daily schedule, male adolescents were not likewise affected. The researchers believed that this may be due to girls needing more interpersonal and familial interaction.