title: Secular trends in family dinner frequency among adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Eating meals, particularly dinner, with family members has been found to be associated with improved dietary intake, lower prevalence of disordered eating behaviors, lower levels of substance abuse, and improved academic outcomes among adolescents. Limited research has examined how the frequency of family meals has changed over time. The objective of this study was to examine secular trends in family dinner frequency over a 12-year period using a large, nation-wide sample of adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using data from two cohorts of the Growing up Today study (GUTS; n = 18,075 observations for 14,79,714 and 15 year olds), we compared family dinner frequency among 14-15-year-olds in 1996 (GUTS1) through 2008 (GUTS2) and rate of change in family dinner frequency from 1996 to 1998 (GUTS1) and 2004-2008 (GUTS2). We fit logistic models using generalized estimating equations with independence working correlation and empirical variance to account for correlation within individual and between siblings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 1996 to 2008, the number of family dinners per week among males decreased from 5.3 to 4.6 (p = 0.04) and among females from 5.0 to 4.4 (p = 0.03). We found that the rate of decline in frequency of family meals was consistent in GUTS1 (1996-1998) and GUTS2 (2004-2008) among both males and females.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From 1996 to 2008, frequency of family dinners decreased among adolescents. Future research should explore reasons for this decline as well as strategies to increase family meals among adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. kwalton@uoguelph.ca.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Walton
authors.affiliation: Obesity Prevention Program, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, USA. ken.kleinman@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ken P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Kleinman
authors.affiliation: Obesity Prevention Program, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, USA. sheryl_rifas@harvardpilgrim.org.
authors.forename: Sheryl L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Rifas-Shiman
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Amherst College, Amherst, USA. nhorton@amherst.edu.
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Horton
authors.affiliation: Obesity Prevention Program, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, USA. matthew_gillman@harvardpilgrim.org.|Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA. matthew_gillman@harvardpilgrim.org.
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Gillman
authors.affiliation: Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA. alison.field@childrens.harvard.edu.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. alison.field@childrens.harvard.edu.|Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA. alison.field@childrens.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Alison E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Field
authors.affiliation: Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA. bryn.austin@childrens.harvard.edu.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. bryn.austin@childrens.harvard.edu.|Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA. bryn.austin@childrens.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: S Bryn
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Austin
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. neuma011@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neumark-Sztainer
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. jhaines@uoguelph.ca.
authors.forename: Jess
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haines
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D062407:Meals / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires