CHICAGO - Food Marketing Institute is partnering with The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, New York, to help publicize the importance of eating dinners at home with the family, and its apparent impact on curbing substance abuse among teenagers.
Rush Russell, vice president and chief operating officer of CASA, presented statistics at the FMI show last week that indicated teens who eat dinner with their families on a regular basis are at almost half the risk of substance abuse as teens who eat dinner with their families only twice a week or less.
In surveying kids for the last 10 years, Russell said the center has found children who reach age 21 without smoking, abusing alcohol or using illegal drugs are "virtually certain never to do so." It also found that teens who eat dinner with their family at home are less likely to use alcohol, tobacco or drugs.
CASA statistics showed the following for those teens who have fewer than three family dinners per week at home, compared to those having five to seven dinners per week at home:
They are 2 + times likelier to smoke cigarettes.
More than 1 + times likelier to drink alcohol.
Almost three times likelier to try marijuana.
In addition, teens who have infrequent family dinners are three times likelier to report that half or more of their friends use marijuana, compared to 13% of teens who have frequent family dinners at home.
Other implications from the teen surveys indicate higher stress and boredom levels among kids who don't eat dinner frequently with their families.
There is a high desire among both kids and parents to overcome barriers to family dinners - late working hours, after-school activities and long commutes - and to have more family dinners at home, according to survey results.
Overall, about one-fourth of teens and half of all parents desire more frequent family dinners. About half of the teens and almost all of the parents who have fewer than three dinners with their families in a typical week would like to have more frequent family dinners, according to survey results.
"We recognize that eating dinner with your kids isn't a magical solution," Russell said. But, he added, research shows that engaging kids through conversation at the dinner table has a powerful influence on their lives.
FMI is joining other policy advocates by donating $25,000 to support CASA's national Family Day on Sept. 25, which promotes a day for families to sit down and eat dinner with their children. The event, now in its fifth consecutive year, has drawn 1.3 million pledges from families to have dinner, Russell said.
Supermarkets are the most logical businesses to support Family Day, Russell said: "It's the perfect business to promote family dinners. You can give more to support family dinners than has been done so far anywhere. You have more influence to promote healthier children."
