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FAMILY DAY FACT SHEET
Family Day
Research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) consistently finds that the more often children eat meals with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. The conversations that go hand-in-hand with meals help parents learn more about their children’s lives and better understand the challenges they face.
CASA created Family Day – A Day to Eat Meals with Your Children in 2001, as a national effort to promote family meals as an effective way to reduce substance abuse among children and teens. Family Day is celebrated on the fourth Monday in September. This year it will fall on September 24, 2007.
Family Day emphasizes the importance of regular family activities and encourages Americans to make family meals a regular feature of their lives. Family Meal Day promotes the fact that parental engagement is the single most effective way to prevent substance use and abuse among young people.
Family Day 2005 was a huge success. President Bush and governors of 47 states issued Family Day proclamations. A national pledge drive, designed to encourage Americans to have a meal together, resulted in 1.3 million American pledging to sit down for a meal together on Family Day. Corporate America embraced Family Day. Sponsors such as General Mills, the Coca Cola Company, American Express Foundation, JPMorgan, Delta Airlines, Verizon Communications, PepsiCo Foundation, the Walt Disney Company, WellPoint, Inc. and many more, have helped to spread the word about the benefits of family meals. All the major media outlets also helped to support Family Day with PSA’s and news/story coverage.
The Benefit of Frequent Family Meals
• The more often children and teens eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink and use drugs. Children and teens who have frequent family dinners:
- Are at half the risk for substance abuse compared to teens who dine with their families infrequently.
Percent Teens Who Drink Alcohol
by Frequency of Family Meals |
|
5-7 Meals per Week |
0-2 Meals per Week |
Percent Who Drink
Alcohol |
30% |
52% |
Smoke Cigarettes
|
14% |
34% |
Use Marijuana |
12% |
35% |
- Are likelier to get better grades in school.
- Have healthier eating habits.
- Are more emotionally content and have positive peer relationships.
- Are more likely to say that their parents are proud of them.
Sacramento Area Underage and High-risk Drinking
• Underage, high-risk drinking among our area’s young people is significant and increasing.
- Twenty five percent of 9th grade students and 35 percent of 11th grade students report drinking alcohol during the previous 30 days.
- Twenty nine percent of Sacramento County 7th graders reported using alcohol, a percentage that is higher the State average of 25 percent.
• Sacramento State University survey data shows that close to half (47.8%) of students report recent alcohol use and a large percentage (30%) report binge drinking.
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