News / Health & Wellness
Dinner and Drugs
Is the key to keeping kids off drugs as close as your dinner table? A new study suggests the meal is important in ways that have nothing to do with nutrition.
For years, breakfast has received all the good press, begin touted as “the most important meal of the day,” but it turns out dinner has the real power – at least when it comes to keeping your kids off drugs.
Those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than three per week) are more than twice as likely to say that they expect to try drugs in the future compared to teens who sit down to eat with their families five to seven times per week, according to a new study titled “The Importance of Family Dinners VI.”
Drug Stats on Dinner Time
The report, issued from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University revealed that 72 percent of teens think that eating dinner frequently with their parents is very or fairly important. Compared to teens who have frequent family dinners, those who have infrequent family dinners are:
- Twice as likely to have used tobacco
- Almost twice as likely to have used alcohol
- One and half times likelier to have used marijuana
One relatively positive finding of the study was that 60 percent of teens report having dinner with their families at least five times a week, a proportion that has remained consistent over the past decade.
Teen Drug Use
If you or a teen you love is battling an addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.
