Dinners lead to better grades, lower drug use

E-mail this story

Print this story

SPM WIRE

It's time to drag the kids away from the TV set or computer and to the dining room.

Corralling the whole family to the dinner table several times a week can actually promote better school performance and keep your kids from such risky behaviors as smoking, drinking and using drugs.

Teens who have infrequent family dinners (two or fewer per week) are twice as likely to smoke daily and get drunk monthly, compared with teens who have frequent family dinners (at least five per week), according to a new report from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.

Academic performance also is enhanced by sitting down regularly to the family dinner table, say the researchers.

Of course, sharing a meal is about more than just sharing the mashed potatoes - it's about sharing the events of the day and communicating with each other.

"This year's findings prove that family dinners and the communication that occurs over the course of a meal are critical in building a relationship with your children and to understanding the world in which they live," said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA's chairman and president. "Parents who have frequent family dinners are those who take the time to know their child's friends and the parents of these friends, know their child's teachers and chaperone their parties, and have healthier kids."

Indeed, compared with teens who have five or more family dinners per week, those who have two or fewer are:

More than twice as likely to have tried cigarettes;

One-and-a-half times likelier to have tried alcohol;

Twice as likely to have tried marijuana; and

More than twice as likely to say future drug use is very or somewhat likely.

Teens who have frequent family dinners are likelier to get better grades in school, and higher academic performance is associated with lower substance abuse risk.

"Of course there are no silver bullets; teen substance abuse can strike any family. But one factor that does more to reduce teens' substance abuse risk is parental engagement and one of the simplest and most effective ways for parents to be engaged in their teens' lives is by having frequent family dinners," Califano concluded.