Teens who join the family infrequently for dinner (two or fewer times per week) are twice as likely to smoke daily and get drunk monthly, compared with teens who have frequent family dinners (at least five per week), according to a report from the Naitonal Center onf Addition and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University in New York City.  Researchers conducted phone interviews with a nationally representative, random sample of 1,297 12-to 17-year-olds and 562 parents.

Compared with parents who say their families have dinner together frequently, those who have infrequent family dinners were five times more likely to say they have a "fair" or "poor" relationship with their teen.  They were one and a half times more likely to say they know the parents of their teen's friends "not very well" or "not at all."  And they were more than twice as likely to say they don't know the names of their teen's teachers.

The findings "prove that family dinners, and the communication that occurs over the course of a meal, are critical in building a relationship with your children and to understanding the world in which they live," says Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA's chairman and president and former U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare.  "Parents who have frequent family dinners are those who take the time to know their child's friends and the parents of those friends," says Califano.  "They know their child's teachers and chaperone their parties and have healthier kids."

So - call everyone for dinner - keep it at least fairly healthy - and TALK TO EACH OTHER!! 

Happy Healthy Day --

Kathy