Exploring the Impact of Family Meals
In conjunction with the Lab School affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin, we’re studying the effect of parent education on behaviors, feelings and attitudes towards family meals among families and young children.
Why are we doing this?
In the U.S., both children and adults are experiencing concerning health conditions related to diet including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The poor diet of the average American is widely held as critically responsible, with unhealthy eating patterns starting as early as infancy with only 1 in 5 children in the US eating a vegetable at least once per day (CDC, 2022).
Disinclination towards healthy foods is commonly known as “picky eating” starts early and appears in 19-50% of kids up to age two (Zimmerman, 2018 cite). However, toddlers demonstrate less fussy eating behaviors and eat more nutrient-dense food during meals when they are served family-style (Verhage, et al., 2018), whereby all foods are served as a family-size portion on the table where parents and children sit together and eat the same foods. As they are able, children are invited to serve themselves and determine how much of each food the child would like.
Family style meals have many benefits:
Children who have more regular family dinners are 35% less likely to engage in disordered eating (Verhage, et al., 2018)
Adolescents who participate in family meals have a more positive body image (Winter, et al., 2019)
Family meals improve vegetable and fruit consumption (cite)
Family meals improve family functioning (cite)
We believe that by educating parents on the rationale for family style dining and supporting their implementation of family style meals at home with our protocol, we may see an increase in family satisfaction with mealtime, decreases in picky eating, and a higher likelihood that children in participating households have a wider acceptance of healthier foods.
The Approach
Research Hypotheses:
The aims of this study are to understand (a) the challenges of implementing family style meals, (b) how education on the importance of family style meals may influence their adoption, and (c) how tools supporting preschool aged children during household mealtimes may facilitate family style meals. Our hypothesis is that many families with young children struggle to conduct family style meals at home due to the time required for preparation and for teaching young children routines and norms involved in mealtime. We also hypothesize that families feel a conflict between their children eating nutritiously and substantively, a perceived result of “picky eating” in young children. After participating in an educational session on healthy mealtimes for families and taking home a mealtime toolkit for use with their children, we hope study participants will (a) adopt family style meals more frequently in their households, (b) have increased positive feelings and lower relational conflict during family style meals, and (c) practice nutritious and psychologically healthy behaviors at mealtimes.
Study Design:
The study design includes a pre-study survey and post-study survey. The intervention is educational and includes an education session for parents, a mealtime toolkit for parents to take home, and a protocol for implementing family-style dining at home.