Parenting Style and Family Meals

Abstract

Welcome to Public Health Moment from the University of Minnesota. Studies have shown that kids who eat meals regularly with their family are more likely to eat healthy diets and less likely to become obese or engage in disordered eating. Now, a new University of Minnesota study shows that parents who exhibit an authoritative parenting style are more likely to eat with their children than parents who are more permissive. Jerica Berge, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Minnesota explains. <Berge: “What we found was that parents who were authoritative – which are parents who set limits and have expectations for their children in the home, while at the same time having caring and warmth in the home – were more likely to have more frequent family meals with their adolescents.”> Berge offers advice to parents, based on these findings. <Berge: “For parents, I think the most important thing would be to find ways in which to set routines, to have family meals. Authoritative parents create environments in the home in which there is structure or limits so that these meals can happen. And so if parents can find ways in which to set, or even work toward goals in setting routine family meals, then adolescents will probably benefit. We found that kind of the magic number was right around four or five meals a week. So, setting routines to make that happen and then creating an environment of warmth and communication during those meals would be beneficial.”> For John Finnegan and Public Health Moment, I’m Mark Engebretson.