Eating together, thriving together: Using common fate modeling to understand youth well-being

Family meals are widely recognized and studied as a cornerstone of youth well-being. However, the indirect associations linking family meals to youth well-being remain underexplored. The current cross-sectional study examined the family dinner frequency and family environment quality and two primary youth outcomes: youth depressive symptoms and positive youth development. A total of 166 parent-youth dyads (youth M_age = 15.2, SD = 1.35, 51% boys, 47% girls, and 2% nonbinary or transgender; parent M_age = 41.2, SD = 4.83, 36% men, 63% women, and 1% nonbinary) living in the United States completed an online survey in the summer of 2021 or 2022. Using the common fate model, within the structural equation modeling framework, the present study incorporated reports from parents and youth on dinner frequency, family cohesion, and family conflict as dyad-level constructs to test the research aims and examine dyad-level processes. More frequent family dinners were associated with better youth well-being, as indicated by lower depressive symptoms (R² = .186, β = -.33, p < .001) and higher positive youth development (R² = .346, β = .50, p < .001). Moreover, the association between family dinner frequency and youth depressive symptoms was explained by family cohesion (β = -.23, 95% CI [-5.206, -1.276]) and family conflict (β = -.31, 95% CI [-8.710, -1.614]). Similarly, the association of family dinner frequency and positive youth development was explained by family cohesion (β = .25, 95% CI [0.096, 0.326]) and family conflict (β = .27, 95% CI [0.085, 0.501]). Findings suggest that efforts to encourage more frequent family dinners should prioritize not only the frequency of family interactions but also the quality of the interactions during time spent together. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).