By Stephen Beech via SWNS
COVID-19 lockdowns put family dinners back on the menu, according to a new study.
Researchers found that the pandemic not only led many families to eat more meals at home, it also had the additional benefit of increasing the quality of family time during those dinners.
The American study showed that families who ate together more often during the pandemic also had more positive interactions, shared news and information, and even embraced technology such as video conferencing to connect with distant relatives.
Study lead author Dr. Anne Fishel, a researcher in family therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said: “The predominance of past research on family dinners has focused on frequency as the key predictor of benefits for children and adolescents.
“This study highlights the importance of examining both frequency and quality to understand the full picture of how shared meals can impact families.”
The research team examined data from a survey of 517 diverse parents across the United States, conducted in May 2021.
Their aim was to investigate changes in family dinner frequency and quality during the pandemic.
Participants were asked about dinner frequency, quality and post-pandemic expectations.
The survey included questions about positive and negative interactions, family support and incorporation of the outside world.
The participants were asked questions such as: “During the pandemic, did all or most of the people living in your home eat dinner together less, about the same, or more than compared to before the pandemic?”
They then provided answers ranging on a scale of one to five, with one being “much less” and five being “much more.”
More than 60% of the respondents reported eating dinner together more often during the pandemic compared with pre-pandemic times, according to the findings published in the journal Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice.
There was also a significant increase in positive interactions – such as expressing gratitude, laughing or feeling connected – during family meals.
Dr. Fishel said: “Specifically, 56% said they increased talking about their days during dinner, 60% said they increased talking about their identity as a family, 60% said they increased expressing gratitude, 67% said they increased laughing together and 59% said they felt more connected to each other around the dinner table.”
She said the positive association was evident across income levels, education, age, gender and race.
The study showed that the pandemic also introduced new aspects to family dinners, including “remote dining” with extended family members and more discussions about current affairs.
Dr. Fishel says many families turned to video conferencing to connect with relatives, potentially strengthening a sense of belonging to a larger family unit.
She said most mums and dads who increased the use of technology for remote dinners during the pandemic reported that they plan to continue doing so.
The research team also found an increase in families incorporating news and information from the outside world into their dinner conversations, potentially offering a “safe space” for children to discuss anxieties and questions with their parents.
Dr. Fishel says that, overall, the findings suggest that the increased frequency of shared meal times during the pandemic may have had “lasting positive effects” on family dynamics.
She said: “The pandemic changed many aspects of our lives, some for the better.
“Even though parents did not purposely sign up to have more shared mealtimes, increases in family dinners were largely linked with improvements in the quality of pandemic-era family dinners.”
Dr. Fishel said the findings also highlight the potential benefits of using digital technology to connect with extended family and incorporating current events into dinner conversations.
She added: “The continued use of remote technology to connect with those not physically present may bring ongoing opportunities for family bonding and children’s feeling a sense of belonging to a larger unit, which we know is protective for their well-being.”
