I was intrigued by this article in AgapePress, whose headline reads: Study Shows Dining With Family Reduces Teens’ Risk of Addictions.  The article begins:

According to one national organization’s research, eating dinner together as a family is not only good for bonding between family members but also cuts down on teens’ risks of alcohol and drug addiction.

I sought out the study, which can be found here (PDF), and as I suspected, the research is shoddy.  While the data generally supports the conclusion that there is a correlation between family dinners and teenage substance abuse, nothing — absolutely nothing — suggest that there is a causal connection.

But the real joke is the study methodology, buried in the back of the document.  How did the researchers determine whether or not the teens in their study had an engaged in alcohol or drug abuse?

Why, they asked them!  And of course, teens wouldn’t lie about that to a total stranger in a telephone interview!

But the researchers were aware that teenagers might lie, so their determination of whether or not a teenager engaged in alcohol or drug abuse was based in part on how teens responded to questions about their friends’ behavior.  Questions like: "Do you know of a friend or classmate who uses acid, cocaine, or heroin?"  If the teen answered "yes", then that upped his "risk" score that the teen himself might be a drug abuser!

What kind of B.S. is that?  When I was in high school, I knew many kids who drank and did drugs and so on.  Didn’t reflect on my behavior one bit.