Reference Material

The Secret Ingredient – The Power of the Family Table

by Chloe Shorten
I have compiled a list of resources from my literature review on the power of family
meals below, including journal abstracts, texts and media articles.

One high profile scholar in the field of family routines and rituals and their impact
on child and family wellbeing is Barbara Fiese PhD.

Barbara, a clinical and developmental psychologist from the University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign Family Resiliency Center, is the author of much of the literature
on what family rituals, such as mealtimes, can mean for children and their parents.

Australian data on the topic is not always easy to extrapolate from studies on family
wellbeing, however both the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital’s Centre for Child
and Adolescent Health and the Australian Institute of Family Studies have excellent
resources on many aspects of supporting family resilience and connectedness.

Further resources are included in the bibliography of The Secret Ingredient- The
Power of the Family Table. (MUP, 2018)

Family Routines and Rituals

Barbara H. Fiese
Family & Relationships
Yale University Press, 2006,159 pages

Barbara Fiese is a leading clinical and development psychologist from the Family
Resilience Centre in Illinois. Her work shows that rituals, routines are important
for families and that although families lives have changed since the 1960s, these
rituals are still valuable to family wellbeing. She integrates various research to
show how these rituals influence physical and mental health, translate cultural
values, and may be used as interventions. She examines family interactions from
bedtime stories to holiday meals and nicknames, and how they relate to
significant issues including parenting competence, child adjustment, and
relational well-being. She uncovers the importance of flexible approaches to
family time to promote healthier families and communities.

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Journals

The Surprising Benefits of the Family Meal

Sharon M. Fruh PhD, RN; Jayne A. Fulkerson PhD; Madhuri S. Mulekar PhD; Lee Ann
J. Kendrick ME; Clista Clanton MSLS
The Journal for Nurse Practitioners
Volume 7, Issue 1, January 2011, Pages 18-22

This article is a literature review on the surprising benefits of family meals. The
authors show that frequent family meals can lead to enhanced vocabulary, academic
success, healthier food choices, demonstration of positive values, and avoidance of
high-risk behaviors such as substance abuse, sexual activity, depression and suicide,
violence, binge eating/purging, and excessive weight loss. The authors demonstrate
how nurse practitioners are in are able to assess a family’s routine and regularity of
family meals and to influence families to increase their regularity of family meals.

Family Routines and Rituals; A Context for Development in the Lives of Young
Children
Mary Spagnola PhD; Barbara Fiese, PhD
Infants and Young Children
Volume 20, No.4, 2007, Pages 284-299

This article highlights recent evidence showing that variations in the way a family
practices its routines and rituals is associated with variations in academic,
emotional and social skills including language development. The authors examine
how different levels of emotional investment in family rituals impact a family’s
satisfaction with their relationships. Looking at the mechanisms of parental efficacy,
behaviour monitoring, family relationship dynamics and health, the research shows
that ordinary family routines and meaningful rituals provide predictability and a
structure that guides behavior and an emotional environment that supports early
development.

The Relationship Between of Family Dinner and Adolescent Problem

Behaviors after Adjusting for Other Family Characteristics
BisakhaSen
Journal of Adolescence
Volume 33, Issue 1, February 2010, Pages 187-196

The authors of this study drew their data from the National Longitudinal Survey of
Youth, 1997 to look at the association between frequency of family dinners (FFD)

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and found that regular family meals are associated with minimizing problem
behaviours such as running away and stealing for girls and drinking, violence,
vandalism and running away, for boys. Even when adjusting for other difficult
factors like poor family connectedness and lack of parental awareness it shows that
programs that promote family meals are beneficial.

Family Meals and Adolescent Emotional Well-Being: Findings From a National

Study
Jennifer Utter PhD; MPH Simon Denny PhD; FRACP; Roshini Peiris-John PhD; Emma
Moselen MappPsy; Ben Dyson PhD; Terryann Clark PhD
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
Volume 49, Issue 1, January 2017, Pages 67-72

Participants were a total of 8,500 nationally representative students participated in

this study of teen mental health and their pattern of eating regular meals with their
family. The authors found there was a beneficial ‘protective effect’ particularly for
the symptoms of depression in girls. The research suggests that interventions to
increase the frequency of family meals are required to “evaluate whether family
meals alone can have an emotional benefit for adolescents.”

A Systematic Review of the Association Between Family Meals and Adolescent

Risk Outcomes
Samantha S. Goldfarba; Will L. Tarver; Julie L. Locher; Julie Preskitt; Bisakha Sen
Journal of Adolescence
Volume 44, October 2015, Pages 134-149

The authors reviewed 26 selected studies from 1990 to 2003. They examined the
protective association between frequent family meals and adolescent health risk
outcomes where most reported a significant association between family meals and
the adolescent risk outcome-of-interest. The authors found a significant association
between frequent family meals and a protective benefit to adolescents however they
identified that some methods were not using adjustment of family connectedness or
family confounders in their analysis. Study methods are significantly associated with
findings of a protective relationship between frequent family meals and should use
models that adjust for family confounding factors.

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Family Meals with Young Children: an Online Study of Family Mealtime
Characteristics Among Australian Families with Children Aged Six Months to
Six Years
Eloise-Kate V. Litterbach EK; Karen J. Campbell; Alison C. Spence
BMC Public Health
Volume 17, 2017, Page 111

This research looks at socioeconomic factors in the study of frequent family meals
and their impact on children’s eating habits, diets and health and the opportunity
the results might provide for mealtime health promotion. 992 people participated in
the The Family Meals with Young Kids Study, an online survey completed by parents
in 2014.

Mealtime characteristics measured Australian families mostly with a university

degree parent and included; frequency of shared meals across the day, duration and
location of mealtimes, parental modelling, and parental perceived importance of the
evening meal. The authors found that as diet, health behaviours and health are often
socioeconomically patterned, it is important to consider whether family meals differ
by socioeconomic position.

Comparing Childhood Meal Frequency to Current Meal Frequency, Routines,

and Expectations Among Parents
Friend S; Fulkerson JA; Neumark-Sztainer D; Garwick A; Flattum CF; Draxten M
Journal of Family Psychology.
Volume 29, February 2015, Pages 136-40

This study examined the impact of whether having frequent family meals as a child
influences the current family patterns and expectations of regular family meal
routines. The author examined relationships between parents' report of how often
they ate family meals while growing up and their current family meal frequency,
routines, and expectations as parents, controlling for parent age, education level,
and race.

Eating frequent family meals while growing up was also significantly and positively
associated with having current regular meal routines and meal expectations about
family members eating together. While there is limited research about the
continuation of family meals from childhood to parenthood, the authors found that
promoting family meals with children may have long-term benefits over
generations.

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Structural and Interpersonal Characteristics of Family Meals: Associations
with Adolescent Body Mass Index and Dietary Patterns
Jerica M. Berge PhD, MPH; Seok WonJin MSW, MA; Peter Hannan MStat; Dianne
Neumark-Sztainer PhD, MPH, RD
Journal of Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Volume 113, Issue 6, June 2013, Pages 816-822

Not enough is known about the structural characteristics and dynamics of family
meals that might help to inform why family meals are protective for youth. The
authors of this study identified that little research has been undertaken into why
frequent family meals have a positive and protective impact on young people. They
indicated that family meals were “approximately 20 minutes in length, included
multiple family members, were typically served family style and occurred in the
kitchen 62% of the time and 38% of the time in another room”.

The authors results add to the research on the importance of family meals by
uncovering the aspects of the meals such as positive communication, interpersonal
engagement that affect the outcomes of lower adolescent body mass and increased
vegetable intake. Their findings contribute to information and interventions for
professionals who are working with families to prevent obesity.

Family Mealtimes: Opportunities For Child And Family Health And Wellbeing
BarbaraFiese, PhD CYF
NewsSummer 2006
https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2006/08/summer.pdf

Fiese shows that the key to the mealtimes that promote healthy development and
emotional wellbeing is clear and direct communication. Families that are able to
communicate clearly during routine mealtimes are less likely to have children who
either act out at the dinner table or are perceived by teachers as having problematic
behaviours. She observes that clear and direct communication is also associated
with reduced health risks such as overweight conditions, anxiety symptoms, and
respiratory conditions. Healthy communication in family mealtimes helps foster the
child’s sense of belonging to the family group.

Some researchers have proposed that mealtime conversations allow for problem
solving opportunities, which should reduce problematic behaviors. Further,
mealtimes also afford the opportunity to monitor children’s activities - a known
factor in reducing risk. Another aspect of family mealtimes that may promote health

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has to do with the emotional connections that are made over time. These repetitive
interactions come to have meaning to individual family members and create a sense
of personal belonging as well as group identity. It is this sense of belonging and
symbolic connection that has been found to be related to mental health in several
empirical studies.

The author shows that it is a challenge for many families to make time during the
meal to talk about events of the day or plan for the future. She recommends parents
spend approximately 3/4 of the time engaged in “some form of communication that
indicates a genuine interest and concern about other family members. Professionals
may use this to support families who aim to make their mealtimes less stressful and
more manageable and focus on satisfactory and pleasurable communication.

Assessing the Relationship Between Family Mealtime Communication and

Adolescent Emotional Well-being Using the Experience Sampling Method
Shira Offer
Journal of Adolescence
Volume 36, Issue 3, June 2013, Pages 577-585

The authors of this article assessed whether elements of frequent family mealtimes
remain overlooked by research. In the 500 Family Study they examined the
association between communication at family mealtime communication and
adolescents emotional well being and showed that in approximately half of the time
spent on family meals (3 h per week on average) teens were talking to their parents
at the table. And that the quality of family relationships family mealtime
communication was significantly associated with higher engagement and with lower
stress. The authors’ findings suggest that family meals create an important
mechanism for communication between teens and their parents that is beneficial to
adolescents' emotional well being.

The Protective Role of Family Meals for Youth Obesity: 10-Year Longitudinal
Associations
Jerica M. Berge PhD, MPH, LMFT, CFLE; Melanie Wall PhD; Tsun-Fang Hsueh MS;
Jayne A. Fulkerson PhD; Nicole Larson PhD, MPH, RD; Dianne Neumark-Sztainer
PhD, RD
The Journal of Pediatrics
Volume 166, Issue 2, February 2015, Pages 296-301

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Associations Between TV Viewing at Family Meals and the Emotional
Atmosphere of the Meal, Meal Healthfulness, Child Dietary Intake, and Child
Weight Status
Amanda C. Trofholza; Allan D. Tate; Michael H. Minera; Jerica M. Bergea
Appetite
Volume 108, 1 January 2017, Pages 361-366

Research on family meals has demonstrated that family meals are protective for
many aspects of child and adolescent health. This research focused on 120 low-
income families with children ranging from 6-12 years to examine whether
distractions during the family dinner such as the presence of TV are “associated
with child weight and weight-related behaviors, the emotional atmosphere at the
meal, or family meal healthfulness.” Those families who were paying attention to the
TV had significantly worse meal dietary healthfulness and were more likely to have
fast food at family meals compared to those who were not paying attention.

Study results show that TV is frequently present at family meals and where they
have the TV on as background noise is associated with deleterious outcomes. The
authors found that families should be given guidance on the value of having
frequent family meals particularly without the distraction of TV, to focus on
communication and connection with one another.

Parenting Style and Family Meals: Cross-Sectional and 5-Year Longitudinal

Associations
Jerica M.Berge PhD; Melanie Wall PhD; Dianne Neumark-Sztainer PhD, MPH, RD;
Nicole Larson PhD, MPH, RD; Mary Story PhD Journal of the American Dietetic
Association Volume 110, Issue 7, July 2010, Pages 1036-1042

Frequent family meals have been identified as having a positive impact on the health
and wellbeing of adolescents. The authors assessed the impact of parenting style
(authoritative, permissive, authoritarian and neglectful) on the relationship among
other home environmental factors and the frequency of family meals among
adolescents. Their results showed that for girls, a maternal and paternal
authoritative parenting style and for boys an authoritative maternal parenting style
was associated with more frequent family meals.

The authors find that long term, a parents’ authoritative style (between the opposite
sex parent and child) was a strong predictor of future frequency of family meals.
Researchers should identify additional factors within the home environment that
are associated with family meal frequency to develop interventions that result in
increased number of family meals. Research should investigate the mealtime

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behaviors of authoritative parents and identify specific behaviors for health
professionals to share with families in order to help them to increase the frequency
of family meals.

Family Meals Protect against Obesity: Exploring the Mechanisms

Richard E. Boles; Thrudur Gunnarsdottir
The Journal of Pediatrics
Volume 166, Issue 2, February 2015, Pages 220-221

The authors examined whether having family meals as an adolescent protects

against becoming overweight or obese 10 years later as a young adult. Data from
2117 adolescents who participated in the long-term Project Eating and Activity in
Teens III, found that all levels of baseline family meal frequency during adolescence
were significantly associated with reduced odds of overweight or obesity 10 years
later in young adulthood compared with never having family meals as a teen.

Family meals during adolescence were protective against the development of

overweight and obesity in young adulthood. Professionals who work families may
want to strategize with them how to successfully carry out at least 1 to 2 family
meals per week in order to protect adolescents from overweight or obesity in young
adulthood.

No Time for Family Meals? Parenting Practices Associated with Adolescent

Fruit and Vegetable Intake When Family Meals Are Not an Option
Allison W. Watts PhD; Katie Loth RD PhD; Jerica M. Berge MPH PhD; Nicole Larson
RD, MPH, PhD; Dianne Neumark-Sztainer RD, MPH, PhD
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Volume 117, Issue 5, May 2017, Pages 707-714

“Despite research linking family meals to healthier diets, some families are unable to
have regular meals together. These families need guidance about other ways to
promote healthy eating among adolescents.”

Family Dinners, Communication and Mental Health in Canadian Adolescents

Frank J. Elgar PhD; Wendy Craig PhD; Stephen J. Trites M.A.
Journal of Adolescent Health
Volume 52, Issue 4, April 2013, Pages 433-438

This 2010 Canadian Health Behaviour of School-aged Children study included

26,069 adolescents (aged 11 to 15 years) and shows the association between the

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frequency of family dinners and positive and negative dimensions of mental health
in adolescents and looks at whether the type and quality of communication between
parents and their teens is significant.

The authors found that there was a positive relationship between frequent family
dinners and emotional well being of the teens and that the ‘ease’ of communication
between parent and child was a contributing factor. They found there was an overall
benefit regardless of gender, grade level or socio economic background on life
satisfaction.

Adolescent and Parent Views of Family Meals

Fulkerson JA; Neumark-Sztainer D; Story M.
Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
Volume 106; Issue 4, April 2006, Pages 526-32

The authors examined both parents and adolescents’ perspective of family

mealtimes finding that both felt family meals were a positive way to increase family
connectedness ‘togetherness’ and parental role modeling. Their findings suggest
that dietetics professionals can help promote their frequency and help families learn
to cook healthy easy food for optimum nutrition and to support the regular sharing
of family meals.

Single-Parenthood and Perceived Income Insufficiency as Challenges for Meal

Patterns in Childhood
Suvi Parikkaa; Esko Levälahtib; Tuija Martelina; Tiina Laatikainen
Appetite
Volume 17 April 2018

Family is an important setting for development of eating behavior in childhood. The

authors investigated the associations between family socioeconomic factors, family
type and meal patterns in childhood on weekdays such as skipping breakfast and
family dinner. The present study showed that family resources in terms of family
type and perceived income sufficiency seemed important in meal patterns in
childhood. This study showed that there are socioeconomic and family type
inequalities in meal patterns in childhood and they are more pronounced during
childhood compared with adolescence.

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Deconstructing Family Meals: Do Family Structure, Gender and Employment
Status Influence the Odds of Having a Family Meal?
Mienah Z. Sharifa; Héctor E. Alcaláb; Stephanie L. Albert; Heidi Fischerd
Appetite
Volume 114, 1 July 2017, Pages 187-193

Researchers used the American Time Use Survey (2006-2008) to analyse the
likelihood of having a family dinner by the parent’s gender, the family structure and
parental employment. This study used data from the American Time Use Survey
(ATUS) (2006–2008) to show that parents gender, the structure of the family and
the parents employment status all influence the odds of having a family dinner.
Future research on family meals should consider all of these factors to better
understand trends and disparities across household compositions.

“Single men had lower odds of eating at all with children and eating a family dinner in
comparison to partnered/married males. Partnered/married women had increased
odds of eating at all with children and eating a family dinner compared to their
partnered/married male counterparts. While single women had increased odds of
eating at all with children compared to partnered/married males, no difference was
detected in the odds of having a family dinner. Among dual-headed households, women
had lower odds of eating a family dinner when both parents were employed compared
a dual-headed household with employed male/non-employed female. There were no
differences among men regardless of their employment status or that of their
partner/spouse.”

Family Rituals as a Protective Factor for Children With Asthma

Samia Markson, PhD; Barbara H. Fiese, PhD
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Volume 25, Issue 7, 1 October 2000, Pages 471–480

The authors examined 86 families to assess how family rituals and routines may
protect children who have asthma from anxiety-related symptoms. Families
reported that meaningful family rituals and father endorsement of family ritual
routines were linked to lower levels of stress and anxiety in kids. These may serve a
protective function for children with asthma under conditions of heightened
parenting stress.

Further reading

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Science Says: Eat With Your Kids
Fishel, A The Conversation, January 9, 2015
http://theconversation.com/science-says-eat-with-your-kids-34573

“For starters, researchers found that for young children, dinnertime conversation
boosts vocabulary even more than being read aloud to. The researchers counted the
number of rare words – those not found on a list of 3,000 most common words – that
the families used during dinner conversation. Young kids learned 1,000 rare words at
the dinner table, compared to only 143 from parents reading storybooks aloud. Kids
who have a large vocabulary read earlier and more easily.

“Older children also reap intellectual benefits from family dinners. For school-age
youngsters, regular mealtime is an even more powerful predictor of high achievement
scores than time spent in school, doing homework, playing sports or doing art.
Other researchers reported a consistent association between family dinner frequency
and teen academic performance. Adolescents who ate family meals 5 to 7 times a week
were twice as likely to get A’s in school as those who ate dinner with their families
fewer than two times a week.

“Children who eat regular family dinners also consume more fruits, vegetables,
vitamins and micronutrients, as well as fewer fried foods and soft drinks. And the
nutritional benefits keep paying dividends even after kids grow up: young adults who
ate regular family meals as teens are less likely to be obese and more likely to eat
healthily once they live on their own.

“Some research has even found a connection between regular family dinners and the
reduction of symptoms in medical disorders, such as asthma. The benefit might be due
to two possible byproducts of a shared family meal: lower anxiety and the chance to
check in about a child’s medication compliance.

“It isn’t just the presence of healthy foods that leads to all these benefits. The dinner
atmosphere is also important. Parents need to be warm and engaged, rather than
controlling and restrictive, to encourage healthy eating in their children.

“But all bets are off if the TV is on during dinner. In one study, American
kindergartners who watched TV during dinner were more likely to be overweight by
the time they were in third grade. The association between TV-watching during dinner
and overweightness in children was also reported in Sweden, Finland and Portugal.

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“In addition, a stack of studies link regular family dinners with lowering a host of high
risk teenage behaviors parents fear: smoking, binge drinking, marijuana use, violence,
school problems, eating disorders and sexual activity. In one study of more than 5,000
Minnesota teens, researchers concluded that regular family dinners were associated
with lower rates of depression and suicidal thoughts.

“In a very recent study, kids who had been victims of cyberbullying bounced back more
readily if they had regular family dinners. Family dinners have been found to be a
more powerful deterrent against high-risk teen behaviors than church attendance or
good grades.

“There are also associations between regular family dinners and good behaviors, not
just the absence of bad ones. In a New Zealand study, a higher frequency of family
meals was strongly associated with positive moods in adolescents. Similarly, other
researchers have shown that teens who dine regularly with their families also have a
more positive view of the future, compared to their peers who don’t eat with parents.
In most industrialized countries, families don’t farm together, play musical
instruments or stitch quilts on the porch.

“So dinner is the most reliable way for families to connect and find out what’s going on
with each other. In a survey, American teens were asked when they were most likely to
talk with their parents: dinner was their top answer. Kids who eat dinner with their
parents experience less stress and have a better relationship with them. This daily
mealtime connection is like a seat belt for traveling the potholed road of childhood and
adolescence and all its possible risky behaviors.

“Of course, the real power of dinners lies in their interpersonal quality. If family
members sit in stony silence, if parents yell at each other, or scold their kids, family
dinner won’t confer positive benefits. Sharing a roast chicken won’t magically
transform parent-child relationships. But, dinner may be the one time of the day when
a parent and child can share a positive experience – a well-cooked meal, a joke, or a
story – and these small moments can gain momentum to create stronger connections
away from the table.” Fishel, A. (2017)

Choosi Modern Food Trends Report

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Core Data Research Series
August 2017
https://www.choosi.com.au/choosi/media/documents/food-trends-national-
media-release.pdf

• A survey of 1,000 Australians across Australia in August 2017 found: Close

to half (47.1%) of respondents eat most of their meals around a table with
their family or friends, while more than two in five (42.9%) say most of their
meals occur in front of the TV.
• Close to a quarter (24.8%) eat most of their meals on their own at the table
or kitchen bench, while one in seven (14.9%) say most of their meals are
eaten at their desk.
• Gen Y’s are the most likely to eat most of their meals at the table or kitchen
bench on their own (31.9%) or at their desk (26.8%).
• Most respondents usually eat dinner at either 6pm (48.6%) or 7pm (34.1%).
• Close to a third (31.3%) of respondents partake in ‘Sunday family dinners’,
while close to a quarter (24.2%) partake in ‘Takeaway dinner Fridays’. Close
to one in five (19.0%) partake in ‘all day breakfast’, while one in 10 (10.5%)
partake in ‘long lunches’. Close to three in 10 (29.2%) do not indulge in any
of the listed food traditions.
• Close to a third (31.7%) of respondents have adopted new eating ‘traditions’
over the past five years, with the most common being ‘healthy eating’
(31.8%), ‘special diets’ (21.1%) and ‘get together meals’ (18.8%).

Aussie Parents Struggle to Make Healthy Food Choices for Their Kids
Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne
Media Release November 2017

Aussie kids aren’t getting enough vegetables in their diet, and many Australian
parents believe fruit drinks may be healthier than water, the latest RCH National
Child Health Poll has revealed. When it comes to sugar, over a quarter of parents
surveyed mistakenly believe that fruit drinks may be a healthier drink option than
water, a third of Aussie kids are regularly consuming sugar-sweetened drinks, and
almost a third (29%) of parents incorrectly believe children may need sports drinks
to recover from regular physical activity.

Dr Anthea Rhodes, director of the RCH National Child Health Poll and RCH
paediatrician, said sugar can be confusing for parents when it comes to food choice.
“This study tells us that the majority of parents are confused about which foods are
healthy and which foods aren’t, especially when it comes to choosing the right foods

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for their kids. With one in four Australian children overweight or obese, it’s vital
that parents are supported to make healthy food choices for their families. Most
parents (66%) said they find it hard to know how much added sugar is in food.
Sugar in drinks can be especially confusing, water is always the healthiest option
and kids should be encouraged to drink more water,” she said. Dr Rhodes said it
was positive to see that most Aussie kids still get a home-cooked meal most nights
of the week. “It was great to see that most parents said their child has a home-
cooked dinner most nights of the week, despite challenges such as a lack of time or
energy.”

Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure

and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos of an Ordinary Meal
Margaret Visser
Grove Press, 1986

Scholar Margaret Visser has written a range of books studying families, lives,
cultures and behaviours. Her books, Much Depends on Dinner and The Rituals of
Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities and Meaning of Table Manners are a
unique backdrop for anyone interested in how we develop our family rituals,
routines and rites of passage.

“Yet table manners have a great deal to recommend them as a subject for analysis. To
begin with, since they are each culture's own way to encourage and manage the
sharing of food, they are essential for the foundation and survival of every human
society without exception. Once we recognize this fact, we may agree that explaining
eating rituals is a serious and desirable enterprise.” Visser, M.

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