Literature

Dr Huntley and her team spent several months reviewing research literature both from Australia and overseas. The majority suggest that the two most important influences on family mealtime behaviour are parental lifestyle (including work patterns) and the life-stage of children, and that the three primary benefits of shared mealtimes are improved relationships between family members; improved nutrition and eating habits; and improved social behaviour among children. (see white paper p13-19 for further details).

Parents

Dr Huntley conducted in-depth interviews with parents and children to find out how often they ate together, whether they enjoyed the experience, what they felt they gained from the experience and how mealtimes could be improved [white paper, p23-31]. Parents and children alike described numerous benefits of family mealtimes – both functional (e.g. providing structure for family life, modelling good eating habits, table manners etc) and emotional (e.g. strengthening family connections, providing an opportunity to express gratitude and pride). Television and technologies, such as games and computers, were seen by some parents as a disruption, even a barrier, to family mealtime routines.
Armed with these findings, Dr Huntley presided over a nationwide study of Australian parents exploring beliefs, behaviours and benefits in relation to family mealtimes.

Family

The results of the nationwide survey [white paper, p32-46] reveal important information, much of which is encouraging, but some that presents a cause for concern. The good news, for example, is that 86% of respondents rate family mealtimes as important or very important, and that almost half (45%) say they eat together every night. That puts Australian families way ahead of our American and British counterparts. However, with nearly half of respondents indicating that finding the time for a shared meal is much harder now than when they were young, and almost a quarter reporting that they eat together only three or four times a week or less, there is clearly work to be done to ensure that we continue to give this important tradition the commitment it deserves.

Quality

The expert advice suggests that we should all be aiming to have family mealtimes at least five nights a week. That sounds achievable, however it is not just the number of times we sit down to eat together that makes a difference, but the quality of the experience that matters too. For instance, 21% of families reported that they regularly eat dinner on the couch on week nights, increasing to 30% at weekends. Over half of those surveyed (56%) believe that the distraction of TV and other forms of home entertainment weakens the experience of eating together, yet only 9% never have the TV on during meals. In around 1 in 4 households, the TV is always on at dinner time. [White paper, p45]

More

The White Paper, Because Family Mealtimes Matter, brings together the literature review and the qualitative and quantitative research carried out specifically for Continental. It makes compelling reading. There is little doubt that family mealtimes bring untold benefits and are a valuable social tool. The great news is that Australian families almost universally recognise this, even if we sometimes find it hard to accommodate the routine into our increasingly busy lifestyles. It's the emotional and social benefits that we particularly value, with the vast majority of us believing that the quality of family life will be undermined if shared mealtimes stop. Yet there is definite room for improvement, particularly in the quality of our mealtimes.