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Dining with Grace: Prayerful Preschooler Families Act Better Than They Eat
Author(s) -
Kessler Heidi,
Wansink Craig S.,
Wansink Brian
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.958.14
Subject(s) - meal , psychology , variety (cybernetics) , developmental psychology , social psychology , demography , medicine , sociology , mathematics , statistics
Giving thanks or praying before a meal has its origins in food security. Today, is there any relationship between whether a family gives thanks or says grace prior to a meal and how they eat? To examine whether families who say grace before meals eat or behave differently than a matched sample who do not. In a survey study, 66 families with at least one child between the ages of three and eight were selected on the basis of whether they reported saying grace or giving thanks at 0 vs. 7 dinners each week. They were they asked a variety of questions about their intake frequency of various foods, their meal variety, and their family mealtime routines. Contrary to what one might think, saying thanks for a meal is not related to actually eating a healthier meal. It is, however, related to a number of sociological factors such as being more likely to be involved in preparing the meal ( p = .002), and being more likely to eat together and to eat without television ( p = .01). Families that say prayers together may not eat better, but they might act better.