Children Who Have Frequent Family Dinners Less Likely to Use Marijuana, Tobacco, and Drink Alcohol

September 22 Marks 8th Annual Family Day, CASA Launches New Tools to Help Celebrate

NEW YORK, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- From 2003 to 2008 research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has consistently found that children who have frequent family dinners are less likely to use marijuana, tobacco and drink alcohol. CASA research reveals that compared to children who have frequent family dinners (five or more per week), children who have infrequent family dinners (less than three per week) are two and a half times likelier to have used marijuana and tobacco, and one and a half times likelier to have drunk alcohol.




Teens Who Have Used Substances
By Frequency of Family Dinners
(Average over 6 years: 2003-2008)

0-2 5-7
Dinners/Week Dinners/Week

Ever Used
Alcohol 48% 30%
Ever Used
Tobacco 29% 13%
Ever Used
Marijuana 27% 11%




Monday, September 22nd will mark CASA's eighth annual 'Family Day -- A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children(TM)' celebration. Family Day is a national movement to inform parents that the parental engagement fostered during frequent family dinners is an effective tool to help keep America's children substance free and reminds parents that "Dinner Makes A Difference!" "If you asked me based on CASA's 16 years of intensive examination of substance abuse and addiction in our nation what's the most effective thing we can do to curb this scourge and protect our children, I would say parental engagement. And there is no more effective example of this than frequent family dinners," said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA's chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. "Years of surveying teens have consistently shown that the more often they have dinner with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink and use drugs."