That is the conclusion of the authors of The Importance of Family Dinners VII, the latest survey of American teens and their parents. The authors of this year’s report looked at the link between the frequency of family dinners and teens’ substance abuse use, their access to substance abuse, and the quality of their relationships with their parents and siblings.
The authors found that compared to teens who have frequent dinners at home with their families (five to seven times a week), teens who eat less frequently with their families are more likely to (1) use tobacco (almost four times as likely), (2) use alcohol (more than twice as likely), (3) use pot (two-and-a-half times likelier), and (4) say they expect to try drugs in the future (almost four times more likely).
