A study has credited eating together with lower rates of bulimia and anorexia. Meals are also less likely to be skipped, and adolescents used to eating round the table are less likely to take up smoking to lose weight:
and teenagers who had fewer than three family dinners a week were almost four times more likely to try tobacco, more than twice as likely to use alcohol and 2.5 times more likely to use marijuana, according to new information released by Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Parenting/family-dinners-linked-risky-behavior-teens/story?id=14583590
And teenagers who sit down to family meals are less likely to be depressed or take risks with drugs, alcohol and sex:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/5939272/Eating-as-family-aids-teen-health
HOWEVER
New research suggests that hen socioeconomics, family structure and how well teenagers reported getting along with their parents were not taken into account, meals did indeed appear to have a very large effect:
http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2012/05/31/the-not-so-magic-family-dinner/?mod=google_news_blog
