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COVID lockdowns caused many families to eat more meals at home, and it may have had an unexpected benefit.

Research published in the journal Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice found that families who ate together more often during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced in increase in quality family time during dinners.

“A majority of families reported an increase in all qualitative aspects of family dinner. There was an increase in positive interactions, incorporating the outside world into dinner, and negative behaviors. The biggest increase reported was the boost in having remote dinners,” Anne Fishel, PhD, lead author of the study and a clinician and researcher in family therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital told Theravive.

“Almost two-thirds of the respondents said that they had family dinner more often or much more often during the pandemic than they did before the pandemic. All of the increases were consistent across a wide range of families with diverse demographic characteristics. It didn’t matter what the income or education level, race, or age of parent or child—increases in frequency predicted qualitive changes.”

The researchers analyzed data from a survey of 517 parents from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds across the United States in May 2021.

The participants in the survey were asked about the frequency of family dinners, quality of those dinner interactions and their post pandemic expectations.

More than 60% of those surveyed said they ate together more regularly during the pandemic than they did before the pandemic began. There was also an increase in positive interactions during family meals.

60% said they saw an increase in talking about their identify as a family, 56% said they had an increase in talking about their day and 60% said they had an increase in expressing gratitude.

67% reported there was an increase in laughing together at dinner time and 59% said they felt more connected to their family at the dinner table.

“So many previous studies have focused on the frequency of family dinner as predictive of nutritional, academic, and mental health benefits, but the secret sauce is really the quality of the atmosphere around the table. Families who eat dinner together every night in stony silence but without laughter and conversation are not going to reap many advantages,” Fishel said.

“Conversely, when the atmosphere at the table is warm and inviting, there are lower levels of acting out, physical aggression, emotional overeating, and disordered eating. The pandemic created a natural opportunity to see what happens when the frequency of mealtime increases and what impact having more dinners would have on the quality of those shared meals. The implications hold promise for the far-reaching benefits of future interventions that increase the frequency and quality of family dinners.”

COVID-19 also introduced a new aspect to family dinners in the form of videoconferencing in remote family members. This is a trend that Fishel said people intended to stick with after COVID-19.

“A vast majority of those who had reported an increase in the frequency of remote family dinners, stated that they planned to continue or exceed those increases after the pandemic. The increase in videoconferencing represented the biggest qualitative change we found. Almost 70% of families reported an increase in remote dinners during the pandemic. And of those who had increased the use of remote technology, 83% said that they planned to continue or exceed those increases after the pandemic,” she said.

The researchers concluded that overall, the increased frequency of family dinners during the pandemic may have resulted in lasting positive effects on family dynamics and the quality of family interactions at the dinner table.

“High quality dinners are those that are warm and welcoming, that allow kids and adults to have a chance to talk about their days or their interests while others listen attentively. A positive atmosphere would also include laughter, pleasure in the eating, and a sense of relaxation. Such an atmosphre would have an absence of the following features: negative, critical talk; cajoling, bribing, or judgment about how much or how little is being eaten; TV on which distracts from conversation;  phones or other gadgets being used to connect with people not present at the table,” Fishel said.  

“The pandemic changed many aspects of our lives, sometimes for the better. Family dinner was one beneficiary: more families had family dinners, and a majority of those families found that the quality of those dinners improved. Family dinner was also changed, and perhaps for good, as people discovered that family dinner could be shared with those not physically present through the use of technology.”