1.) The text talks about one concept called Family Rituals. Family Rituals are defined as “a voluntary, recurring patterned communication event whose jointly enacted performance by family members pays homage to what they regard as sacred, thereby producing and reproducing a family’s identity and its web of social relations” (Galvin, Bylund, Brommel, p. 114). Dinnertime could be seen as a Family Ritual if the members consciously choose to consistently eat together and to create meaningful interactions. The text talks about how rituals can bring significant meaning to a family
2.) I have reviewed the subject of family dining practices in two different scholarly sources. First I looked at a 2006 study I found in the Journal of the AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSOCIATION called Adolescent and Parent Views of Family Meals. It looked at the impact of the family dinnertime both through the perspective of adolescents and parents. I was amazed at some of the results of the research. The study found that “the family meal time can be an opportune time for family role modeling of manners and eating habits” (Fulkerson & Neumark-Sztainer, 2006). It was interesting because in recording the data from adolescents and parents, “family meals are perceived as positive experiences by both adolescents and parents, although they differ in their perceptions of family meal frequency and the meal environment” (Fulkerson & Neumark-Sztainer, 2006). I was not expecting the youth to see family mealtime as important, but they saw significance in it. Also, “Younger adolescents were more likely than older adolescents to view family meals as a priority and report that they are expected to follow rules at mealtime, and older adolescents were more likely than younger adolescents to report scheduling and time barriers to family meals” (Fulkerson & Neumark-Sztainer, 2006). This data goes to support that in today’s culture time barriers become problematic. Activities in sports and extra curricular activities are taking the youth away from family dinnertime. Secondly, I looked at a 2003 study I found in the Journal Of Adolescence called The Relationship Between Frequency of Family Dinner and Adolescent Problem Behaviors After Adjusting for Other Family Characteristics. What I found in this research was that the more often kids were at the dinner table with parents, the less likely they were to participate in high-risk behavior (Sen, 2003). Now, Sen did recognize that this could have been due to the extra interpersonal communication that takes place at the dinner table, but other positive effects were also correlated to a consistent dinnertime. There were many interesting findings, but one specifically was that consistent dinnertime experiences was more appreciative to adolescent males than females, I found this to be true in my observations. To sum up both of these articles, I found that dinnertime has proved to be significant in the eyes of the kids and parents. It is a time where family norms are created and good behavior is modeled.
3.) The family I chose to observe was Brad and Theresa Basham. My wife and I know them through an organization I work for. They have invited us over multiple times to have dinner with them and their two high school daughters. One girl is a sophomore and the other is a senior. I chose this family to observe because they seem like an “average” family with caring parents and normal, active teenaged children. I am also familiar with the family, so I knew my presence would not hinder how they acted on a regular basis. I recognized that both of the girls connected with their mom, on some level. Also, I would like to note that these parents go out of their way to be involved in the lives of their girls. The younger girl, Hannah, does not connect with her father at all. He tries to bridge relational divides all the time; he does things like attempt to talk about issues he thinks she would be interested in and talks about topics that are relevant to her. On the several occasions I have been invited over for dinner, Hannah has turned him down. My wife has talked to her about this, and she even recognizes that she intentionally ignores her dad. She fully recognizes that she just doesn’t connect with him, for whatever reason. This goes to support the findings in Sen’s research. Girls are much harder to connect with in their adolescence years than boys. Even though the girls did not connect with their dad very well, they still saw dinnertime as important. Their eating habits were also really healthy for teen girls. This really goes to support both research articles I read.
4.) I think the information that I found most interesting in the research articles was why family meals might be beneficial to adolescents. These include providing family identity, order and consistency, and enhancing familial communications and interactions. I just think there is so much legitimacy to this idea of consistency. In my own personal experience with high school teens, consistency is one of the most important aspects of trust associated to teens. It shows them that they have worth, and that they are being sought after. This is accomplished in a big way during the family mealtime.
Second Part.) I think it is overwhelmingly obvious in both the research articles, book, and observation that when families consistently spend time together, it is beneficial. Even though Hannah does not connect with her dad well, I believe that her spending time with her family at dinner, for the majority of the week has a huge impact on her. I believe it teaches her that she is cared for and loved, without ever saying that to her directly. The message is clearly communicated through consistency, and her dad's attempts to conversate about her life. Meaning if found while engaging in activities over and over. For instance, if I always sang when I got into my car, a cognitive impression would be formed about riding in my car. If I always sang up-beat music with a positive message, I would start to form that type of thinking towards riding in the car. Similarly, when the Basham's sit down for dinner consistently, multiple times every week, they are all forming impressions about who their family is, and about what is most important, whether they recognize it or not. Spending time with each other during dinner is extremely important. I think that one big concept that I can take away from the research I found and the observation I did about family communication is that you can communicate a lot to your family members by just showing up and spending time together. A positive attitude and presence goes a long way. If you added some healthy conversation to the mix, it would only go to further enhance the mealtime experience.
