Table 1. Description of studies investigating the association between family meal frequency and adolescent nutritional status.

Authors	Purpose of the study/Study design	Participants’ characteristicsb	Definition of FFM	Nutritional status measurements	Relevant findings to family meal & nutritional status
Alamri, 2020 [17]	Purpose: To examine the influence of family meal type (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) on food intake and body mass index (BMI) of Saudi adolescent girls. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 388 Age: 14–16 years old Country: Saudi Arabia	“Which meals were consumed with the family?”	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	There was a significant negative association between eating family lunch and dinner with adolescent BMI.
Babajafari et al., 2011 [18]	Purpose: To examine the influence of some aspects of family food behaviors on adolescents’ overweight. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 3862 Age: 12–15 years old Country: Australia	“How often does your family sit down to eat a meal together?	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI percentiles and scores standardized for gender and age	Mother’s report on frequency of eating family meal was not significantly associated with overweight adolescents.
Chang & Halgunseth, 2014 [19]	Purpose: To examine the influence of acculturation and ethnicity on the interaction between parental control and family meals on adolescent weight status change. Design: Longitudinal	Sample: 6180 Age: 11 years old (at fifth grade) Country: USA	During the phone interviews, parents reported the number of times in a typical week that ‘‘Your family eats the evening meal together” In addition, parents reported the number of times in a typical week that the family ate breakfast (e.g., ‘‘At least some of the family eats breakfast together”).	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	Findings revealed association of high frequency of family meals with unhealthy weight status change for less acculturated Hispanic adolescents who experienced low parental behavioral control at home.
Chen et al., 2019 [20]	Purpose: To examine the associations between multiple aspects of parenting (including parent–child relationship satisfaction concerning love, parental authoritativeness, and family dinner frequency) and various subsequent offspring psychosocial, mental, behavioral, and physical health and well-being outcomes. Design: Longitudinal	Sample: 6180 Age: 10–17 years old /12.78 years old (mean) Country: USA	“How often do you sit down with other members of your family to eat dinner or supper?”	Self-reported weight and height were used to assess nutritional status	Frequency of family dinners was not statistically associated to the nutritional status.
Farajian et al., 2014 [21]	Purpose: To recognize the most important dietary and physical activity habits, sedentary behaviors, plus parental influences that are associated with childhood overweight and Obesity, in a cross-sectional sample of school children. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 4552 Age: 10–12 years old/10.93 years old (mean) Country: Greece	All the participants reported the frequency of having meals together with the whole family or at least with one family member.	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI for gender and age	The frequency of family meals was reported to be a predictor of childhood overweight/obesity.
Frank et al., 2019 [22]	To show current family meal patterns of children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years living in Germany and investigating associations with sociodemographic characteristics, BMI, and dietary behavior. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 1355 Age: 12–17 years old Country: Germany	“In your household, are there certain meals that are always eaten together?”	Self-reported weight and height were used to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	Those with overweight eat breakfast, afternoon snacks, or dinner together with their families less frequently than those without overweight.
Fulkerson et al., 2008 [12]	Purpose: To describe associations between the frequency of family meals and overweight status over a 5-year period in a large and ethnically diverse population of adolescent males and females. Design: Cross-sectional and longitudinal	Sample: 2516 Age: 14.9 years old (mean at baseline) Country: USA	“During the past seven days, how many times did all, or most, of your family living in your house eat a meal together?”	Self-reported weight and height to calculate BMI for gender and age	Although significant inverse associations between family meal frequency and overweight status were observed for early adolescent females in all cross-sectional models, longitudinal associations were not significant.
Fulkerson et al., 2009 [23]	Purpose: To examine these associations among a population of adolescents at-risk of academic failure. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 143 Age: 17.2 years old (mean) Country: USA	“During the past week, how many days did all, or most of the people you live with eat dinner together?”	Self-reported weight and height to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	Adolescents who reported no family dinners in the past week were almost three times more likely to be overweight and six times more likely to be food insecure than adolescents who reported eating 5–7 family dinners per week. Family meal frequency groups did not differ significantly in their report of unhealthy or healthy weight loss practices.
Goldfield et al., 2011 [24]	Purpose: To examine the relationship between the frequency of family meals and BMI in male and female adolescents, while controlling for potential confounding factors associated with BMI, such as parental education, adolescents’ age, and snack-food eating. Design: Longitudinal	Sample: 1764 Age: 14.12 years old (mean) Country: Canada	“Do you eat regular meals with your family at home, sitting at the table together?”	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI for gender and age	Eating together as a family may be a protective factor against obesity in female adolescents, but not in male adolescents.
Haghighatdoost et al., 2017 [25]	Purpose: To examine the associations of frequency of family dinner with mental disorders and obesity in a nationally-representative sample of Iranian adolescents. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 5528 Age: 10–18 years old; 14.8 (mean for dinner consumers); 14.4 years old (mean for non-dinner consumers) Country: Iran	“Typically, how many days per week do you have dinner or supper with your family?” Breakfast and lunch intake were also assessed with a similar question.	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI for gender and age	In spite of similar dietary intake, family dinner skippers were more likely to be overweight or obese.
Hassan et al., 2019 [26]	Purpose: To determine whether breakfast and family breakfast frequency are associated with adiposity trajectory from early to middle adolescence. Design: Longitudinal	Sample: 809 Age: 10–16 years old Country: Brazil	“How often do you eat the following meals?” followed by a specific item for breakfast frequency in the presence of the father or mother.	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI for gender and age. Body fat percentage (% BF) was estimated using bioelectrical impedance analysis using a tetrapolar analyzer.	The highest BMI increase within the duration of the study occurred among male participants who did not have breakfast with the family, and the highest decrease in % Body Fat occurred among male participants who had intermediate family breakfast frequency.
Horning et al., 2016 a [27]	Purpose: To assess correlations between nine parent- and child-reported family dinner frequency measures and evaluate cross-sectional associations between each of the nine family dinner frequency measures and outcomes previously examined with family meal frequency in the research literature. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 160 Age: 8–12 years old/10.3 years old (mean) Country: USA	“Did all or most of your family eat dinner together?” “Did you sit down with other people in your family to eat dinner?” “Was at least one parent sitting with you when you ate dinner?”	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI Z-scores for gender and age	In regard to unadjusted associations between family dinner frequency measures and weight outcomes, all five parent-reported and two of four child-reported dinner frequency measures were significantly and inversely associated with child BMI z-scores.
Horning et al., 2017 a [28]	Purpose: To examine associations between dinnertime routines and parent dinnertime media use and child and parent BMI outcomes. Also, to examine whether family dinner frequency moderated the relationship between significant mealtime context measures (from aim one) and child and parent BMI outcomes. Design: Longitudinal	Sample: 160 Age: 8–12.9 years old/10.4 years old (mean) Country: USA	“During the past 7 days, how many times were you sitting and eating with your child when he/she ate his/her dinner?”	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI Z-scores for gender and age	Higher dinnertime routines were significantly associated with lower child BMI z-scores but not parent BMI scores.
Kubik et al., 2009 [29]	Purpose: To determine the prevalence of overweight among a sample of Alternative High School students and assess the association between overweight and selected personal, behavioral, and social environmental factors. Design: Longitudinal	sample: 140 Age: 14–19 years old/17.3 years old (mean) Country: USA	“During the past seven days, how many times did all, or most, of your family living in your house eat dinner together?”	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	Overweight students were significantly more likely to report no family meals during the prior week than were normal-weight students.
Larson et al., 2013 a [30]	Purpose: To examine and compare the frequency of having family meals at breakfast and at dinner according to sociodemographic characteristics. Also, to examine the associations of eating together as a family at breakfast with measures of dietary quality and weight status. Design: Longitudinal	Sample: 2793 Age: 14.4 years old Country: USA	“During the past seven days, how many times did all, or most, of your family living in your house eat breakfast together?”	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	Participation in more frequent family breakfast meals was associated with lower risk for overweight/obesity.
Larson et al., 2013 a [31]	Purpose: To identify the most important home/family, peer, school, and neighborhood environmental characteristics associated with weight status. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 2793 Age: 14.4 years old Country: USA	“During the past seven days, how many times did all, or most, of your family living in your house eat a meal together?”	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI Z-scores for gender and age	Several characteristics of home/family (e.g., infrequent family meals) was consistently associated with higher BMI z-scores among both boys and girls.
Ness et al., 2012 [32]	Purpose: To increase the understanding of risk factors for childhood overweight and obesity among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 5342 Age: 10–17 years old Country: USA	“During the past week, how many days did all the family members who live in the household eat a meal together?”	Self-reported weight and height were used to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	Family meals were not significantly associated with nutritional status in the sample.
Sedibe et al., 2018 [33]	Purpose: To investigate differences/similarities in dietary habits and eating practices between younger and older, rural and urban South African adolescents in specific environments (home, community, and school) and their associations with overweight and obesity. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 3490 Age: 13 years old (rural); 14 years old (urban) Country: South Africa	Participants were asked how frequently they ate their main meal with their family.	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI Z-scores for gender and age	Eating the main meal with family some days and eating the main meal with family almost every day were associated with increased risk of being overweight and obese among Early Adolescence group.
Sen, 2006 [34]	Purpose: To explore associations between overweight status and the frequency of family dinners (FFD) for adolescents and how those associations differ across race and ethnicity. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 5014 Age: 13.33 years old (mean at baseline) Country: USA	It was assessed by asking youth about the number of days that their family ate dinner together in a typical week in the past year.	Self-reported weight and height were used to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	For whites, higher FFD was associated with reduced odds of being overweight in 1997, reduced odds of becoming overweight, and increased odds of ceasing to be overweight by 2000.
Smith Price et al., 2009 [35]	Purpose: To examine how several family processes, including parental control, family dinners, parenting style, and demographic variables, are associated with adolescent overweight over time in a large, diverse sample. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 4688 Age: 12–14 years old Country: USA	‘‘How many days a week do you eat dinner with your family?”	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	More frequent family meals led to decreases in BMI percentile over time.
Taveras et al., 2005 [36]	Purpose: To examine both cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between frequency of family dinner and overweight status in a large sample of 9- to 14-year-old children. Design: Cross-sectional and longitudinal	Sample: 14431 Age: 9–14 years old Country: USA	“How often do you sit down with other members of your family to eat dinner or supper?”	Self-reported weight and height were used to calculate BMI percentiles for gender and age	In cross-sectional analyses, adjusting for potential confounders, the odds of being overweight was 0.85 among children who ate family dinner on “most days” or “every day” compared with those who ate family dinner “never or some days.”
Vik et al., 2016 [37]	Purpose: To assess the prevalence of having regular family breakfast, lunch, dinner among 10–12 years old in Europe, the association between family meals and child weight status, and potential differences in having family meals according to country of residence, gender, ethnicity and parental levels of education. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 7716 Age: 11.5 years old Country: Belgium, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain	“How often do you and/or your spouse/partner have breakfast/lunch/dinner together with your child?”	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI	Having regular family breakfast, but not lunch or dinner, was inversely associated with overweight.
Utter et al., 2008 [38]	Purpose: To examine associations between frequency of family meals and body mass index (BMI), other aspects of the home food environment, and related nutrition behaviors. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 3119 Age: 14.8 years old (mean) Country: New Zealand	"In the last 5 school days, how many times did all or most of your family living in your house eat an evening meal together?"	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI	Students eating meals with their families on all of the previous five school nights had a lower mean BMI than those who did not eat any meals with their families. When age and gender were treated as confounders in the model, the relationship was no longer significant.
Utter et al., 2013 [39]	Purpose: The aim of the current study is to examine the relationship between family meals and nutrition behaviors of adolescents in New Zealand. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 8734 Age: 13–17 years old Country: New Zealand	"During the past 7 days, how many times did all, or most, of your family living in your house eat a meal together?"	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI	There were no relationships between frequency of family meals and BMI. The mean BMI of students sharing meals 7 or more times a week (22.6) was similar to that of those students sharing family meals twice a week or less often (23.2) after controlling for the demographic characteristics of students.
Wurbach et al., 2009 [40]	Purpose: To describe the meal patterns of Jena schoolchildren and their associations with children’s weight status and parental characteristics. Design: Cross-sectional	Sample: 1571 Age: 7–14 years old Country: Germany	Variables used to describe the Family meals of the children were the following: The frequency of main meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) eaten together with all family members.	Weight and height were measured to calculate BMI Z-scores for gender and age	Using linear regression analysis, a high inverse association between BMI standardized scores and meal frequency was observed.

^a Same studies with each outcome explored in a different published article.

^b Information about participants’ age was reported according to the data available in the studies.

BMI: body mass index