What Family Mealtime Brings to the Table

Family mealtimes together appear to play an important role in adolescent mental health. Family mealtime frequency is associated with positive outcomes such as greater well-being, self-esteem, happiness, and better mental health in adolescents. However, the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown left behind even higher levels of depression and anxiety and other mental health concerns in adolescents. Moreover, children from lower SES tend to have higher anxiety levels, depressive affect, and stress. In this study, I proposed to help bridge that gap in the research by examining adolescents from low SES families and help determine how much family mealtimes may benefit families from lower SES. I explored the association between the frequency of family mealtimes and anxiety, depression, stress levels, and well-being in adolescents from low SES families using a Pearson’s correlation coefficient quantitative approach. A sample size of 34 participants was used in this study. The surveys and questionnaires used for data collection consisted of multiple-choice questions regarding demographics, mealtime frequency, the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales-Youth Scale (DASS-Y), and the Well-being scale-Stirling Children's Well-being Scale (SCWBS). Results indicated that there was not a statistically significant relationship between frequent family mealtimes and anxiety, depression, and stress. However, there was a statistically significant relationship between frequent family mealtimes and well-being in adolescents from low SES families in a rural county in Virginia. These findings have significant implications for designing interventions to improve mental health outcomes in this population.