Associations among Nine Family Dinner Frequency Measures and Child Weight, Dietary, and Psychosocial Outcomes

Abstract

Background Family meal frequency has been consistently and significantly associated with positive youth dietary and psychosocial outcomes but less consistently associated with weight outcomes. Family meal frequency measurement has varied widely and it is unclear how this variation may impact relationships with youth weight, dietary, and psychosocial outcomes. Objective This study assesses how five parent/caregiver-reported and four child-reported family dinner frequency measures correlate with each other and are associated with health-related outcomes. Design/Participants This secondary, cross-sectional analysis uses baseline, parent/caregiver (n=160) and 8–12 year old child (n=160) data from the Healthy Home Offerings via the Mealtime Environment (HOME) Plus trial (collected 2011–2012). Data were obtained from objective measurements, dietary recall interviews, and psychosocial surveys. Outcome measures Outcomes included child body mass index z-scores (BMIz), fruit, vegetable and sugar-sweetened beverage intake, dietary quality (Healthy Eating Index-2010 [HEI-2010]), family connectedness, and meal conversations. Statistical analyses performed Pearson correlations and general linear models were used to assess associations between family dinner frequency measures and outcomes. Results All family dinner frequency measures had comparable means and were correlated within and across parent/caregiver- and child-reporters (r=0.17–0.94, p<0.01). In unadjusted analyses, 78% of family dinner frequency measures were significantly associated with BMIz scores and 100% were significantly associated with fruit/vegetable intake and HEI-2010. In adjusted models, most significant associations with dietary and psychosocial outcomes remained but associations with child BMIz remained significant only for parent/caregiver- (β±SE= −0.07±0.03; p<0.05) and child-reported (β±SE= −0.06+0.02; p<0.01) family dinner frequency measures asking about ‘sitting and eating’ dinner. Conclusions In spite of phrasing variations in family dinner frequency measures (e.g., which family members were present and how meals were occurring), few differences were found in associations with dietary and psychosocial outcomes but differences were apparent for child BMIz, which suggests phrasing of family dinner frequency measures may influence associations found with weight outcomes.

The frequency of family meals and nutritional health in children: a meta‐analysis

“…children with cystic fibrosis or diabetes) and (iii) the study reported insufficient statistics to calculate an effect size. Using these criteria, we arrived at a total of 57 studies .…”

“…who was present at the table) and found small differences in weight outcomes. More specifically, measures asking about ‘sitting and eating together’ revealed stronger effects than measures that addressed either sitting together or eating together .…”

Family meal frequency and its association with food consumption and nutritional status in adolescents: A systematic review

“…Fulkerson et al (2009) reported that adolescents who did not eat dinner with their families in the week before the study were almost 3 times more likely to be overweight [23]. Horning et al (2016), evaluating different measures of FFM, as reported by parents and adolescents, and the relationship between these variables and BMI z-scores, found, in adjusted analyses, that measures of sitting and eating together were inversely related to BMI z-scores in adolescents [27] In another study, Horning et al (2017) evaluated the moderating role of FFM in the relationship between meal context and NS of parents and adolescents, and the results suggested that FFM amplifies the relationship between healthy eating behavior and BMI in the context of family meals [28]. showed that infrequent family meals were consistently associated with higher BMI z-scores in both boys and girls [31].…”

“…Horning et al (2016) identified a significant association of the frequency of family dinners with dietary quality and fruit and vegetable intake, as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) [27]. Dietary quality and the intake of fruits and vegetables at dinner were also assessed by Arcan et al (2019), who found that individuals with higher FFM were more likely to fill half their plate with fruits and vegetables, although they did not differ from their peers in terms of dietary quality [41].…”

The Association of Maternal Accompaniment at Family Dinners and Depressive Symptoms of Korean Adolescents

“…First, this study analyzed the direct relationships between maternal factors and their adolescent children's depressive symptoms using nationally representative data. Also, we examined mother-child interactions and maternal influences by focusing specifically on family dinners in which both the mother and the adolescent participated, rather than simply focusing on the existence or frequency of family dinners, as in other studies [32,33]. We considered not only the child-related factors of adolescent depression, but also the maternal factors, such as the mother's depressive symptoms, education level, household income, marital status, region, work schedule, working hour, current alcohol drinking status, and limitation of activities.…”