Perceptions of the family mealtime environment and adolescent mealtime behavior: Do adults and adolescents agree?

The family mealtime environment has great potential to affect the eating be haviors of youth in the family. It is difficult to determine the important elements of a healthy mealtime environment because a valid assessment of th e family environment is so difficult to obtain. The objective of this study is to examine the level of agreement between adult and adolescent percepti ons of the family mealtime environment and adolescent tnt mealtime behavior . A telephone survey was used to query adult and adolescent family members about how they perceive the family mealtime environment and thr adolescent' s mealtime behavior. A convenience sample of 282 adult/adolescent pairs fro nt four schools in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area completed the telephone su rveys. Frequencies of responses and the associations between the adult and adolescent responses are presented. Pearson correlations and regression wer e used to examine the level of association between adult and adolescent res ponses. Mixed-model regression was used for the continuous variables, and m ixed-model logistic regression was used for the dichotomous variables. This study showed very little concordance between adolescent and adult response s. Only one question regarding arguments about eating during mealtime showe d concordance. Adults and adolescents living in the same household seem to have different perceptions of the family mealtime environment and adolescen t rating patterns. Researchers need to be aware of and concerned with the v alidity of the use of self-report for descriptions of family mealtime. They also need to be aware of the difference in adult and adolescent perception s and confider these differences when designing messages for the family.