Family Meal Times Linked to Teens' Mental Health

By Charnicia E. Huggins

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many adolescents with anxiety, depression or other mental health problems come from families that don't eat meals together or participate in similar family rituals as often as the families of adolescents without such psychological problems, according to the results of a small study.

``Union rituals (such as sharing meals) serve to transmit belief systems and norms of behaviour,'' write Dr. Elena Compan Poveda, of Health and Social Services of Alicante District in Spain, and her colleagues. The lack of such practices can adversely affect a person's maturation, and the ``resolution of the crisis of adolescence'' may be impeded, they add.

The findings are based on a study of 259 male and female youths aged 14 to 23. Eighty-two participants--the study group--were recruited from mental health outpatient clinics where they had sought first-time treatment, most commonly for anxiety and depression. The remaining 177 youths, recruited from a local school and university, served as a comparison group. All lived at home.

Getting together as a family at lunch or dinnertime is a Spanish custom. In general, the study group ate fewer meals with their parents than their peers in the comparison group, the investigators report. Further, a higher percentage of people in the study group believed that they lived in a dysfunctional family, according to the report in the February issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

For example, the youth in the study group reported eating fewer than five meals per week with both parents out of a possible 14 meals, while their peers ate about six meals with their parents each week, Compan Poveda and her colleagues report.

``Sharing daily meals with the family constitutes a union ritual that promotes adolescent mental health,'' the authors write. Celebrating special events with the extended family is another union ritual, they note, which was also more common among those in the comparison group.

Over half of those in the study group perceived some level of dysfunction in their families and nearly one in five believed that the dysfunction was severe, the report indicates. In comparison, only about one quarter of the comparison group believed that their family was dysfunctional, and less than 10% thought it was severely dysfunctional.

Those who had sought mental healthcare were less likely to report participating in New Year's Day, Easter and other family celebrations than their peers. They also reported traveling, attending parties and participating in other family activities less frequently than youth in the comparison group.

``The decrease in family activities that improve adolescent-family communication and emotional closeness, is related to a more frequent use of mental health services,'' Compan Poveda and her team write.

The researchers note that the study group's decreased family eating time and participation in family rituals could have contributed to their mental health problems, but may also have been the result of these problems.

``The cause and effect continuum could run in either direction,'' the authors conclude.

Commenting on the study, Dr John Ashton, co-editor of the journal in which the study is published, said that the study results ``support something which many of us have long suspected--namely that the Americanization of European family life is undermining very important social mechanisms for producing resilience in the next generation.''

Further, citing television dinners and fast food, in comparison to ``historic cultural traditions of 'slow food,''' Ashton asked, ``If families don't regularly touch base, is it surprising that parents do not know when their children are getting into difficulties?''

SOURCE: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2002;56:89-94.