Children who routinely eat their meals together with their family are healthier than those who don't, a new study shows. Canadian researchers tracked hundreds of children from five months old to 10 years old.
They found that the 10-year-olds were more active, had better mental health, and drank less unhealthy soda if they always ate dinner with their parents or guardians and siblings.
The researchers say this is the clearest evidence to support the unconfirmed theory that family meals are beneficial in every way, since they were able to account for all lifestyle factors - including environment and their parents' health.
'The presence of parents during mealtimes likely provides young children with firsthand social interaction, discussions of social issues and day-to-day concerns, and vicarious learning of prosocial interactions in a familiar and emotionally secure setting,' pyschoeducation professor Linda Pagani, of the University of Montreal, said.
'Experiencing positive forms of communication may likely help the child engage in better communication skills with people outside of the family unit.
'Our findings suggest that family meals are not solely markers of home environment quality, but are also easy targets for parent education about improving children's well-being.'
The study looked at children who had been followed by researchers since they were five months old as part of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development.
At age six, their parents started reporting on whether or not they had family meals together. At age 10, parents, teachers and the children themselves provided information on the children's lifestyle habits and their psycho-social well-being.
When the family meal environment quality was better at age six, higher levels of general fitness and lower levels of soft-drink consumption were observed at age 10.
These children also seemed to have more social skills, as they were less likely to self-report being physical aggressive, oppositional or delinquent at age 10.
Harbec explained that the study added more weight than any other previous research on this topic.
