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Family Meals and Child Academic and Behavioral Outcomes
Article first published online: 7 AUG 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01825.x
© 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.
Additional Information
How to Cite
Miller, D. P., Waldfogel, J. and Han, W.-J. (2012), Family Meals and Child Academic and Behavioral Outcomes. Child Development, 83: 2104–2120. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01825.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 16 NOV 2012
- Article first published online: 7 AUG 2012
- Abstract
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This study investigates the link between the frequency of family breakfasts and dinners and child academic and behavioral outcomes in a panel sample of 21,400 children aged 5–15. It complements previous work by examining younger and older children separately and by using information on a large number of controls and rigorous analytic methods to discern whether there is causal relation between family meal frequency (FMF) and child outcomes. In child fixed-effects models, which controlled for unchanging aspects of children and their families, there were no significant (p < .05) relations between FMF and either academic or behavioral outcomes, a novel finding. These results were robust to various specifications of the FMF variables and did not differ by child age.