Importance of Family Dinners
If you are looking for a way to keep your children alcohol and drug free through their teen years, having regular family dinners together - with no distractions - may be the best approach that you can take. Teens who have frequent family dinners - five or more per week - are much less likely use alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has released its fifth edition of "The Importance of Family Dinners" report and once again the value of frequent family dinners is highlighted within its results.
"We know that teens who have frequent family dinners are likelier to get A's and B's in school and have excellent relationships with their parents. Having dinner as a family is one of the easiest ways to create routine opportunities for parental engagement and communication, two keys to raising drug-free children."
“The bad news in this year’s survey is that work and other activities keep many families from getting to the table for frequent family dinners. But the good news is that most of these teens and parents would be willing to give up a weeknight activity to have dinner with their family,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s founder and chairman and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. “Over the past decade and a half of surveying thousands of American teens and their parents, we’ve learned that the more often children have dinner with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. I urge parents to arrange their schedules and the outside activities so that they can have frequent family dinners. If they do so, they’ll discover what a difference dinner makes.”
From press release 2009: www.casacolumbia.org
Challengers of Oldham County www.oldhamcountychallengers.com and NOMS PTSA
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