Family Dinner and Disordered Eating Behaviors in a Large Cohort of Adolescents

Abstract

We aimed to examine longitudinal associations between family dinner and disordered eating behaviors among adolescents. We studied 7535 females and 5913 males, 9 to 14 years of age in 1996. We performed multivariable logistic regression to assess the associations of previous year family dinner with 1-year incidence of each of 3 outcomes: purging, binge eating, and frequent dieting. Compared to those who ate family dinner “never or some days,” female adolescents who ate family dinner at least most days were less likely to initiate purging, binge eating, and frequent dieting. Estimates of association among males were similar in direction and magnitude, although lower frequency of the outcomes resulted in less precise estimates and fewer statistically significant results.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (DK46834, DK59570), the Kellogg Company, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (200510MFE-154556-10955).