The assumption that most people have is that those couples who have children would be far more likely to eat together as a family at home, than those couples without children.
Many studies have found that families with children benefit enormously from eating at the table with their parents, together with their brothers and sisters.
As there have been many studies that have found health benefits for couples and their children who ate family meals together, the researchers are interested in doing further studies as to the potential benefits for couples who have frequent family meals without young children.
New research
In a recent study, researchers from Ohio State University investigated the frequency of family meals in couples who do not have children, and found that these couples were just as likely to have meals together as those families who have children.
According to the 2011 Australian Census there were 5,584,000 families in Australia. Interestingly, most of the families represented couples who did not have children (37.8%). While in the 2010 U.S. Census found that more than half of husband-wife family households did not include children under the age of 19.
The lead author, Rachel Tumin at Ohio State University said that “there are a lot of families that don’t have children. And we’ve forgotten about them in this context of thinking about sharing food and time together and what that means.”
The findings
The researchers commented that overall, it was found that in both forms of households, i.e. couples with or without kids, that around 50% of the families had sit-down meals together 6 – 7 days each week.
The prevalence of never eating family meals together or even eating only once a week together is low,” senior author Sarah Anderson, associate professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University.
While in families that had young children, nearly 50% of them had family meals during the majority of the week regardless of the couples age.
The researchers did not find that age played a factor in whether the family with or without kids ate at home together. The researchers also found that older couples without young children were more likely than younger couples without young children to have family meals at home.
Sharing Life with food
We know that sitting down and sharing a meal brings people together – it is one of the things that hold a family close. Whether the family is a couple with or without kids, it is shared time together.
Creating a long term bond through food and conversation.
Article Source:
“The Epidemiology of Family Meals Among Ohio’s Adults,” was published in the journal, Public Health Nutrition