Original article
Family Meals and Substance Use: Is There a Long-Term Protective Association?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2008.01.019Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To examine 5-year longitudinal associations between family meal patterns and subsequent substance use in adolescents.

Methods

A total of 806 Minnesota adolescents were surveyed in public schools in 1998–1999 (mean age, 12.8 years) and again by mail in 2003–2004 (mean age, 17.2 years) as part of a longitudinal population-based study. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use at follow-up for adolescents reporting regular family meals at baseline compared with those without regular family meals, adjusting for family connectedness and prior substance use.

Results

Family meal frequency at baseline was associated with significantly lower odds of cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and marijuana use at follow-up among female adolescents, even after adjusting for baseline substance use and additional covariates. Family meals were not associated with use of any substance at follow-up for male adolescents after adjusting for baseline use.

Conclusions

Results from this study suggest that regular family meals in adolescence may have a long-term protective association with the development of substance use over 5 years among females. Parents should be encouraged to establish a pattern of regular family meals, as this activity may have long lasting benefits

Section snippets

Methods

The sample included 366 male adolescents (45.4%) and 440 female adolescents (54.6%) who were surveyed at two time points 5 years apart (mean age at follow-up, 17.2 years; range, 15–18 years). Data come from Project EAT-II, a longitudinal study of eating patterns and related socioenvironmental, personal, and behavioral factors among adolescents. In Project EAT-I, 1608 middle-school students (grades 7 and 8) at public schools in the metropolitan area of the Twin Cities, Minnesota, completed

Results

Approximately 60% of the sample (59.5% of males and 61.2% of female adolescents) reported five or more family meals per week at the baseline assessment. As shown in Table 1, a minority of participants reported at least monthly use of each substance at follow-up, ranging from 11.7% of females reporting marijuana use to 25.5% of females reporting cigarette smoking.

Family meal frequency at baseline was significantly associated with cigarette smoking, alcohol and marijuana use at follow-up for

Discussion

Results from this study suggest that regular family meals in adolescence may have a long-term protective association with the development of substance use over 5 years among female adolescents. Middle-school female adolescents reporting at least five family meals per week were significantly less likely to report regular use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana during their high school years than their counterparts whose families did not have regular meals, even after accounting for earlier

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Grant No. R40 MC 00319-02 (to D.N.-S.) from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (Title V, Social Security Act), Health Resources and Service Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and from the General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition.

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