Family dinners nourish good mental health in adolescents

Benefits of family meals to mental health examined in a large community sample of adolescents

2013-03-20

(Press-News.org) Regular family suppers contribute to good mental health in adolescents, according to a study co-authored by McGill professor Frank Elgar, Institute for Health and Social Policy. Family meal times are a measurable signature of social exchanges in the home that benefit adolescents' well-being – regardless of whether or not they feel they can easily talk to their parents.

"More frequent family dinners related to fewer emotional and behavioural problems, greater emotional well-being, more trusting and helpful behaviours towards others and higher life satisfaction," says Elgar, an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry, whose research centers on social inequalities in health and family influences on child mental health.

The study, conducted by Elgar, Wendy Craig and Stephen Trites of Queen's University, examined the relation between frequency of family dinners and positive and negative aspects of mental health. The researchers used a national sample of 26,069 adolescents aged 11 to 15 years who participated in the 2010 Canadian Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study. The researchers found the same positive effects of family meal time on the mental health of the young subjects, regardless of gender, age or family affluence.

"We were surprised to find such consistent effects on every outcome we studied," says Elgar. "From having no dinners together to eating together 7 nights a week, each additional dinner related to significantly better mental health."

During the study, the adolescents submitted data on the weekly frequency of family dinners, ease of parent-adolescent communication and five dimensions of mental health, including internalizing and externalizing problems, emotional well-being, more helpful behaviors and life satisfaction.

The authors suggest that family mealtimes are opportunities for open family interactions which present teaching opportunities for parents to shape coping and positive health behaviors such as good nutritional choices, as well as enable adolescents to express concerns and feel valued, all elements that are conducive to good mental health in adolescents.

### The results of this research are published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The Canadian Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study was part of a World Health Organization collaboration of 43 countries and was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program needs an updated approach to analyzing flood risk

2013-03-20

WASHINGTON -- In administering the National Flood Insurance Program, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) needs a more modern approach to analyzing and managing flood risk behind levees -- one that would give public officials and individual property owners a clearer idea of the risks they face and how they should address them, says a new report from the National Research Council. Because levees can reduce but not eliminate the risk of flooding, the agency should also encourage communities behind levees to use multiple methods to reduce risk and increase awareness ...

Study suggests demographic factors can predict risk of operative births in UK women

2013-03-20

Independent maternal demographic factors such as social status, ethnicity and maternal age can predict the likelihood of operative births in the UK, according to a new study published today (20 March) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The study, conducted by researchers in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York, explores which women are at an increased risk of an operative birth, including caesarean section (CS) or instrumental vaginal birth. It looks at data from the Millennium Cohort Study of babies born in the UK ...

AGU: Voyager 1 has left the solar system, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate

2013-03-20

WASHINGTON – Thirty-five years after its launch, Voyager 1 appears to have travelled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere, according to a new study appearing online today. The heliosphere is a region of space dominated by the Sun and its wind of energetic particles, and which is thought to be enclosed, bubble-like, in the surrounding interstellar medium of gas and dust that pervades the Milky Way galaxy. On August 25, 2012, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft measured drastic changes in radiation levels, more than 11 billion miles from the Sun. Anomalous ...

NIST tests underscore potential hazards of green laser pointers

2013-03-20

Using a low-cost apparatus designed to quickly and accurately measure the properties of handheld laser devices, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers tested 122 laser pointers and found that nearly 90 percent of green pointers and about 44 percent of red pointers tested were out of compliance with federal safety regulations. The NIST test apparatus was designed so that it can be replicated easily by other institutions. As NIST researchers reported at a conference on March 20, 2013,* both red and green laser pointers often emitted more visible ...

Clues point to cause of a rare fat-distribution disease

2013-03-20

Studying a protein that gives structure to the nucleus of cells, Johns Hopkins researchers stumbled upon mutations associated with familial partial lipodystrophy (FPLD), a rare disease that disrupts normal patterns of fat distribution throughout the body. "Our findings open new paths for learning how and why fat cells are disproportionately affected by mutations in the protein lamin A, which is found in the nucleus of most cells of the body," says Katherine Wilson, Ph.D., professor of cell biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. According to the ...

A step forward in the treatment of chronic urticaria

2013-03-20

This press release is available in Spanish. Barcelona, 20th March 2013.- An international study involving dermatologists from the Hospital del Mar and Spanish subjects has concluded that a drug normally used to treat severe bronchial asthma caused by allergies (Omalizumab) rapidly eliminates the symptoms of spontaneous chronic urticaria, a development that it is expected will significantly improve the quality of life of chronic urticaria sufferers. Spontaneous chronic urticaria, one of the most common skin diseases, consists of an abrupt reaction that results in hives ...

Metal stents are effective treatment for blocked bile ducts

2013-03-20

NEW YORK (March 20, 2013) -- A multi-center analysis, led by Weill Cornell Medical College and published in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, shows the use of temporary "fully covered self-expanding metal stents" (FCSEMS) can effectively fix a painful and potentially life-threatening benign biliary stricture -- a severely blocked or narrowed bile duct. "Benign biliary strictures can be managed and resolved with these new fully covered metal stents with flared ends. Our study findings are similar to the recent European study results in patients overseas who received ...

Insights into the immune system, from the fates of individual T cells

2013-03-20

By charting the differing fates of individual T cells, researchers have shown that previously unpredictable aspects of the adaptive immune response can be effectively modeled. The crucial question: What determines which of the immune system's millions of cells will mobilize to fight an acute infection and which will be held back to survive long-term, forming the basis of the immunological memory? The scientists' findings, published in the journal Science, could have implications for improved immunotherapy and vaccination strategies. The scientists found that the immediate ...

United States should execute new strategy toward Syria, Baker Institute special report says

2013-03-20

HOUSTON – (March 20, 2013) – As Syria's raging civil war approaches the two-year mark, the United States should prepare a more focused strategy that strengthens the moderate political forces in Syria and engages Syria's regional and international stakeholders, according to a new special report from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. The report also recommends that U.S. strategy should buttress Syria's neighbors, address the deepening humanitarian crisis and plans for a post-Assad Syria. The special report, "Syria at the Crossroads: United States Policy ...

Genomic data are growing, but what do we really know?

2013-03-20

"We live in the post-genomic era, when DNA sequence data is growing exponentially", says Miami University (Ohio) computational biologist Iddo Friedberg. "But for most of the genes that we identify, we have no idea of their biological functions. They are like words in a foreign language, waiting to be deciphered." Understanding the function of genes is a problem that has emerged at the forefront of molecular biology. Many groups develop and employ sophisticated algorithms to decipher these "words". However, until now there was no comprehensive picture of how well these methods ...

Family dinners nourish good mental health in adolescents

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: