Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion

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This finding looks at the relationship between family dinners and teen substance abuse.

The study found that frequent family dinners were associated with lower rates of teen smoking, drinking, and drug use. Compared with teens who frequently had dinner with their families, (five nights or more per week), those who had dinner with their families only two nights per week or less were twice as likely to be involved in substance abuse. They were 2.5 times as likely to smoke cigarettes, more than 1.5 times as likely to drink alcohol, and nearly three times as likely to try marijuana.

Sample or Data Description
Data come from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia’s 2005 back to school survey, which interviewed 1000 teenagers and 829 parents of teenagers.

Source
The National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, The Importance of Family Dinners II, (: 2005), pp. .

FindingID: 8208