Division of Epidemiology & Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 1300 South Second Street-Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA.
Public Health Nutr. 2010 Jul;13(7):1113-21. doi: 10.1017/S1368980010000169. Epub 2010 Feb 10.
The purpose of the present paper is to provide an integrated overview of the research methodology and key findings from a decade of research on family meals as part of Project EAT (Eating Among Teens), a large, population-based study of adolescents.
Focus groups conducted with 141 middle-school and high-school adolescents suggested the importance of family meals in influencing adolescents' food choices. These findings led to the inclusion of questions on family meals in the Project EAT-I survey, completed by 4746 middle-school and high-school students, and in the Project EAT-II longitudinal survey, completed by 2516 of the original participants five years later. A subset of 902 parents also participated in telephone interviews as part of Project EAT-I.
Findings indicate that many adolescents and parents view family meals in a positive light, but there is great diversity in the context and frequency of family meal patterns in the homes of adolescents. Findings further suggest that family meals may have benefits in terms of dietary intake, disordered eating behaviours, substance use and psychosocial health.
Findings from Project EAT, in conjunction with other research studies on family meals, suggest the importance of working with families to increase the frequency and improve the quality of family meals. Further research is needed in order to elucidate the pathways that underpin the relationships between family meals and health outcomes. Suggestions for a future research agenda based on what was learned from Project EAT are provided.
本研究旨在综合概述“青少年饮食研究”（Eating Among Teens，简称 EAT）项目中有关家庭用餐的十年研究方法和主要发现。EAT 项目是一项基于人群的青少年研究，旨在调查青少年的饮食行为。
EAT 项目共开展了 141 次中学生和高中生焦点小组访谈，这些访谈强调了家庭用餐对青少年食物选择的重要影响。这些发现促使我们在 EAT 项目第一阶段调查中纳入了家庭用餐相关问题，该调查共收到 4746 名中学生和高中生的反馈；在五年后的 EAT 项目第二阶段纵向调查中，共有 2516 名最初的参与者完成了调查。作为 EAT 项目第一阶段的一部分，902 名家长还参加了电话访谈。
研究结果表明，许多青少年和家长对家庭用餐持积极态度，但青少年家庭的用餐模式在背景和频率方面存在很大差异。研究结果还表明，家庭用餐可能对饮食摄入、饮食失调行为、物质使用和心理健康有积极影响。
EAT 项目的研究结果与其他家庭用餐研究相结合，表明需要与家庭合作，提高家庭用餐的频率和质量。需要进一步研究以阐明家庭用餐与健康结果之间关系的潜在机制。本文根据 EAT 项目的经验教训，为未来的研究议程提供了建议。
