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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
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