The traditional family meal is good for a child’s mental health, researchers say. They found that teenagers who regularly ate with their parents were less prone to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

They also discovered that young people with no history of mental illness were more likely to participate in family activities such as going to the cinema, shopping and playing sport.

The study was conducted in Spain, but the findings will have implications for Britain, where family meals have become increasingly rare.

The researchers, from Alicante, assessed family habits of 82 people aged 14 to 23 who had visited a mental health clinic at least once. They compared the results with 213 healthy young people.

The team found that participants with mental health problems shared fewer than five meals a week, not including breakfast, with their parents, compared with more than six for the other group.

They also tended to miss dinner during the week, and both lunch and dinner at weekends. A third of the families comprising children with mental health problems ate dinner separately, compared with slightly more than 17 per cent of the families with healthy children.

Healthy young people were also more likely than the other group to take part in family parties and religious festivals, and to spend more time with their extended family.

The healthy children participated in more family activities such as holidays, going to the theatre and sport.

Dr Elena Compan, a researcher for Alicante health and social services, who co-wrote the study, said family meals constituted “a union ritual that promotes adolescent mental health”.

In the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, she wrote: “The rituals facilitate positive changes during the development of an individual.”

Another reason to nuke your TV set, especially during family meals.

Published on DrKelley.info, January 26, 2002. Embedded links (if any) may no longer be active. (Ed. 01.11.11)

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