Many adolescents with anxiety, depression or other mental health problems come from families that don't eat meals together or participate in similar family rituals as often as the families of adolescents without such psychological problems.

Union rituals, such as sharing meals, serve to transmit belief systems and norms of behavior. The lack of such practices can adversely affect a person's maturation, and the resolution of the crisis of adolescence may be impeded.

Getting together as a family at lunch or dinnertime is a Spanish custom. In general, the study group ate fewer meals with their parents than their peers in the comparison group, the investigators report. Further, a higher percentage of people in the study group believed that they lived in a dysfunctional family.

For example, the youth in the study group reported eating fewer than five meals per week with both parents out of a possible 14 meals, while their peers ate about six meals with their parents each week.

Sharing daily meals with the family constitutes a union ritual that promotes adolescent mental health.

Celebrating special events with the extended family is another union ritual, they note, which was also more common among those in the comparison group.

Over half of those in the study group perceived some level of dysfunction in their families and nearly one in five believed that the dysfunction was severe. In comparison, only about one quarter of the comparison group believed that their family was dysfunctional, and less than 10% thought it was severely dysfunctional.

Those who had sought mental healthcare were less likely to report participating in New Year's Day, Easter and other family celebrations than their peers. They also reported traveling, attending parties and participating in other family activities less frequently than youth in the comparison group.

The decrease in family activities that improve adolescent-family communication and emotional closeness, is related to a more frequent use of mental health services.

An editorial expands on the fact that the Americanization of European family life is undermining very important social mechanisms for producing resilience in the next generation.

Television dinners and fast food, in comparison to "historic cultural traditions of 'slow food' are a large part of the problem. If families don't regularly touch base, is it surprising that parents do not know when their children are getting into difficulties?

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health January 2002;56:89-94