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Abstract
Sharing family meals together is an important component of the family environment that can influence early childhood development and protect against negative health outcomes such as obesity, depression, and substance abuse. Routinely shared mealtime can improve life-style related health behaviors and enhance family cohesion. Previous research on family meals has primarily been limited to Caucasian families with adolescents. While socioeconomic disparities have been shown for adverse health outcomes, there is little research exploring the demographic characteristics associated with sharing family meals. This study estimates the prevalence of sharing family meals among Oregon families with two-year old children, and tests the hypothesis that race/ethnicity and poverty status are associated with family meal frequency