the family meal may be a marker for a constellation of behaviors that collectively predict good outcomes: behaviors such as limiting the amount of time watching TV or on the Internet, etc. The bottom line on family meals: • A family in which kids often have meals with parents is likely to be a family in which parents still have authority; a family in which parents and family interaction still matter. • But just insisting that everybody eat together, while the TV is blaring and the kids are texting at the dinner table, probably won’t accomplish much by itself.38
