Question: What is one question or topic from the Family Harm Reduction Practice you want to learn more about? Need Assignment Help?
The best family harms reduction practice: Dinner
An interesting finding is that one of the most substantive ways for parents to decrease substance use among their children is to have dinner with them.
- As frequency of family dinners increases, reported drinking, smoking, and other drug use decreases.
- Compared to teens who participate in frequent family dinners (five to seven times per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than three times per week) were twice as likely to have used tobacco or marijuana, and more than one and a half times likelier to have used alcohol.
- Of course, this is a correlational finding and not causation, for the actual factor decreasing risk of use is family engagement.
- Being together is what decreases risk; speaking and listening to one another and giving children undivided parental attention.
- Cellphones and tablets need to be set aside and not only for dinner, but for regular, shared family activity.
- Children and youth need boundaries and established rules that are fair and consistently applied. They also need parents to set appropriate examples.
- The fourth Monday of September is CASA Family Day: A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children