Family Meals Reduce Disordered Eating in Teen Girls

Worried about your daughter's eating habits? New research shows eating five or more meals together per week as a family considerably decreases the likelihood of teen girls engaging in extreme diet behaviors such as fasting or vomiting.

In 1999, 2516 Minnesota teens filled out questionnaires on eating habits, parental pressures to diet, family connectedness and weight control measures. Researchers followed up with the students five years to reevaluate their eating habits. Results showed that female subjects who ate five or more meals per week with family had two-thirds the odds of engaging in extreme weight control behaviors, even when researchers controlled for family connectedness and parental encouragement to diet.

For boys, however, there was no significant relationship between family meals and engaging in extreme weight control measures. Frequency of family meals did increase the chances of boys engaging in the less harmful eating behaviors of skipping meals and eating little food, however. This may point to different experiences in family meals between the genders, with girls possibly being more involved in preparation, say researchers.

ABSTRACT: Family Meals and Disordered Eating in Adolescents