Top Ten Findings A Wise Investment: Benefits from Families Spending Time Together -- August 2007

1. Spending time in everyday family leisure activities is associated with greater emotional bonding within the family. A family's "core" leisure activities (those that are typically everyday, low-cost, home-based activities such as playing board games, playing in the yard, gardening and watching television together) were related to the family's cohesion (“the emotional bonding that family members have toward one another”). Both a family's "core" activities and their "balance" activities (those that are novel experiences and require a greater investment of time, effort, planning and money--such as vacations, special events, and sports activities) were related to the family's ability to adapt. --Zabriskie, Ramon B. full details

2. Children in families that participate in religious activities together are more likely to report seeing expressions of love and affection between their parents. Children in religious families were significantly more likely to report that their parents expressed their affection or love for one another than those in less religious families. Two dimensions of family religious involvement–family participation in religious activities at least once per week and parental prayer more than once per day—were associated with greater expression of love or affection between the parents, as reported by their children. Smith, Christian full details

3. Parents of families in which both the parents and children attend religious services are more likely to know their children’s social networks. Parents of families in which both the parents and children participated in religious activities were more likely to know their children's friends, those friends' parents, and their children's teachers, than parents of families in which only the parents or only the children, or neither, participated in religious activities. Smith, Christian full details

4. Children’s academic success is associated with having mothers who frequently talk and listen to them. Children's academic success was correlated with their mothers' involvement in talking with them, listening to them, and answering their questions. Luster, Tom full details

5. Children whose fathers spend time with them doing activities in the home tend to have better academic performance. Preteens whose fathers spent leisure time away from the home (picnics, movies, sports, etc.) with them, shared meals with them, helped with homework or reading, and engaged in other home activities with them earned better grades in school, on average, than peers whose fathers spent less time with them. Similarly, teens whose fathers engaged in activities in the home and outdoors, spent leisure time, and talked with them earned better grades, on average, than teens whose fathers spent less time with them. Cooksey, Elizabeth C. full details

6. Adolescents whose parents are involved in their children’s lives tend to exhibit fewer behavioral problems. Having parents who were involved in their lives was associated with a decrease in adolescents' behavioral problems throughout a one-year period. Parent involvement was assessed by how often the parent or parental figure asked about their children's lives, encouraged their interests, gave good advice, and spent free time with them in school activities. Pearce, Michelle J. full details

7. Youths who communicate, do activities and have close relationships with their parents are less likely to engage in violence. Family integration through bonds with a parent (in particular, with a mother who was living in the home) was associated with a decrease in the likelihood that an adolescent will commit an act of violence. (Parent-child bonds were measured by adolescents' reports of feeling close to their parents, being involved in family activities, and communicating with their parents.) Youths in two-parent families whose bond with their resident mothers was just one standard deviation higher than the mean level were 18 percent less likely to commit an act of violence than peers with average maternal bonds. Among youths living in single parent families, a bond with that parent that was one standard deviation above the mean was associated with a 17 percent decrease in violence, while a one-unit increase in bonding with a nonresident parent was associated with a 5 percent decrease in violent behavior. Knoester, Chris full details

8. Teens who frequently have dinner with their families are at a lower risk for substance use. The study found that frequent family dinners were associated with lower rates of teen smoking, drinking, and drug use. Compared with teens who frequently had dinner with their families, (five nights or more per week), those who had dinner with their families only two nights per week or less were twice as likely to be involved in substance abuse. They were 2.5 times as likely to smoke cigarettes, more than 1.5 times as likely to drink alcohol, and nearly three times as likely to try marijuana. The National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University full details

9. Teens whose parents are home with them after school and in the evening are less likely to experience emotional distress. Teenagers were less likely to experience emotional distress if their parents were in the home when they awoke, when they came home from school, at dinnertime, and when they went to bed, if they engaged in activities with their parents, and if their parents had high expectations regarding their academic performance. In addition, those who had low self esteem were more likely to experience emotional distress. Resnick, Michael D. full details