Have a dinner as a family and enjoy the benefits of your child’s healthier adolescent development. Families that eat together have teens that are less likely of smoking, drinking, using drugs, getting depressed, developing an eating disorder, delay having sex, are more likely to do well in school, and less likely to consider suicide.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) reported that compared to teens who eat dinner frequently with their families (five or more family dinners per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than three per week) are:
- three and a half times likelier to have abused prescription drugs.
- three and a half times likelier to have used an illegal drug other than marijuana or prescription drugs.
- three times likelier to have used marijuana.
- more than two and a half times likelier to have used tobacco.
- one and a half times likelier to have used alcohol
