MINNEAPOLIS, January 8, 2008—Teen girls who eat meals with their families are less lkely to engage in disodered eating behaviors, according to research led by Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., lead investigator of Project Eating Among Teens (Project EAT) at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Disordered behaviors include appear using diet pills, laxatives, or other extreme measures to control weight.

This Project EAT research appeared in the January issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Neumark-Sztainer and Project EAT colleagues studied 2,516 adolescents at 31 Minnesota schools over the course of five years. Participants completed two surveys—an in-class survey in 1999 and a mailed survey in 2004—regarding how often they ate with their families as well as their body mass index, feelings of family connectedness, and eating behaviors.

Among teen girls, those who ate five or more meals with their families each week in 1999 were significantly less likely to report using extreme measures—including binge eating and self-induced vomiting—to control their weight in 2004, regardless of their sociodemographic characteristics, body mass index, or family connectedness. Among adolescent boys, regular family meals did not predict lower levels of disordered eating behaviors five years later.

University of Minnesota news release