Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 18, 2014, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A6 A 6 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2014 MANITOBA winnipegfreepress. com PSYCHOLOGY WORKS FOR DIABETES Manitoba Psychological Society Visit us at 730 Archibald St. 204- 233- 0697 www. mps. ca AREA RUG SALE! Over 1000 RUGS in stock Craig and Marc Kielburger Craig and Marc Kielburger co- founded Free The Children and are authors of the new book, Living Me to We: The Guide for Socially Conscious Canadians. metowe. com/ living By: Craig and Marc Kielburger Examining the power of the family dinner Sit- down family dinners weren't a regular feature in our house. We chowed down in front of the tube as often as not. Occasionally dad dragged everyone to the table, and oh, the conversations we had- the problems facing the world, the challenges in our own lives, the merits of dad's cooking. We can't recall the plot of a single sitcom watched while eating dinner, but we remember the topic of most family dinner discussions. This month Alberta, B. C., Ontario and Saskatchewan celebrate Family Day. Among the many " tips" tossed about to acknowledge this day, sitting down to a family meal is near the top of the list. It has achieved reverential status in North American culture. Myriad studies purport incredible benefits, beyond just better table manners, such as better academic success and less chance of delinquency in children and teens. But is the family dinner really all it's cracked up to be, the cure for all social ills? The academic research on the virtues of family meals is extensive. The Columbia University Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse ( CASA) in New York, for example, made the case in 2010 that regular family dinners led to decreased risk of teen substance abuse. Through a survey of 1,000 teens in the United States, the researchers found that teens who sat down for a dinner with their parents at least five times a week were more likely to have a strong relationship with their parents than those who ate together less than two times a week. And teens that have a strong relationship with their parents were significantly less likely to smoke or use drugs. Perhaps not surprisingly, food companies are behind a number of the studies on the benefits of family dinners. In 2010, pasta maker Barilla sponsored a survey of 2,000 families. The study discovered that children from families who sat down for regular family meals were more physically active, more likely to choose healthy foods over junk, and got better grades in school. Those children were also far more likely to describe themselves as respectful, happy and confident. Of course, any good scientist warns us not to mistake correlation for cause. Do regular family meals really make for happier families and well- adjusted kids, or is it simply that happy families with well- adjusted kids are more likely to have regular family meals? That's the question sociology researchers Anne Meier and Kelly Musick set out to answer. In their paper, published in 2012 in the peer- reviewed Journal of Marriage and Family, Meier and Musick found that, at first glance, teenagers in families that ate together often were less likely to experience depression, abuse drugs and alcohol, or engage in delinquent behaviour. Upon closer examination, the researchers also noticed families that frequently eat together were more likely to come from higher income groups. And parents in those families also spenttimewiththeirchildreninotherways- helping with homework or participating in extracurricular activities. The presence of these other contributing factors diminishes the credit dinner can claim for positive behaviour. Meier and Musick then followed a group of teens for a year to see if changing the frequency of family dinners caused changes in behaviour. Although rates of teen depression dropped with more frequent family dinners, rates of delinquency and alcohol or drug use did not change. Meier and Musick nevertheless concluded that regular family dinners still have benefits in raising physically and emotionally healthy children and teens. In a New York Times op- ed, they identified the critical requirement: ". . . the effects of family dinners on children depend on the extent to which parents use the time to engage with their children and learn about their day- to- day lives." We know from experience, busy families have a difficult time carving out space for a family meal. Shelley London, one of the founders of the U. S.- based organization The Family Dinner Project, said don't stress if you can't make family dinners work as often as you'd like. " Don't worry about being perfect. It's not about perfection. Figure out what's right for you," she said. Their web site- thefamilydinnerproject. org- is a great resource with recipes, hundreds of ageappropriate conversation starters, tips and tricks for making dinner fit in a busy schedule, making it fun, and getting your whole family on board. The family dinner may not be the legendary cureall for family problems. But the benefits of taking time to connect with your family still hold true- and dinner is an ideal time. It's not just about eating together, it's what is said while you're passing the potatoes. Craig and Marc Kielburger are co- founders of international charity and educational partner, Free The Children. Its youth empowerment event, We Day, is in 11 cities across North America this year, inspiring more than 160,000 attendees from over 4,000 schools. For more information, visit www. weday. com. T HE University of Manitoba has quietly disbanded the Disaster Research Institute after 24 years of research into flooding, forest fires and other natural disasters in Manitoba and internationally. " I don't know what's behind it," Prof. Emdad Haque, the DRI's codirector, said Friday. the U of M was the only university in Canada placing such emphasis on disaster research, Haque said: " Nobody has any separate institute." Haque and his colleagues will be swallowed up within the Natural Resources Institute, where Haque said there is no collective support dedicated to their work, and where the importance of specific disaster research will not be evident. As the Disaster Research Institute, " It is easier to communicate and get credibility," he said. The board of governors closed the institute at its most recent meeting, because the DRI no longer had funding. Associate vice- president of research Gary Glavin said Friday the U of M has about 60 research institutes, each of which is reviewed every five years, and rely on external funding such as federal research grants or contracting out their services. " They'd lost a lot of their external competitive funding - there's no expectation of central funding," Glavin said. He said the DRI members had accepted the institute would close. Professors across campus collaborate outside of a formal structure all the time, and there is nothing to stop researchers asking to re- establish the DRI in future, Glavin said. But Haque was adamant the DRI should have continued. " Individually, we are continuing our research on disasters and risks. Provincewide, it is one of the most important areas," he said. " It is a lot less ( research) because of no collective institutional support." Prof. Ronald Stewart, an atmospheric physicist and member of the DRI, said he could see Glavin's position - federal granting agencies stopped funding disaster research. But Stewart said disaster research deserves to be resurrected as a separate and visible body. " It is a huge issue - we hear about disasters several times a day," he said. Within the past week, said Stewart, he spoke in Canmore about the Alberta flood last summer, in Vancouver to discuss the city's vulnerability to disasters, and to the Manitoba government about the 2011 flood. " I deal with extremes. I'm doing a study of the Toronto ice storm," said Stewart, who has conducted major research on droughts and said no one has done more research on the Quebec ice storm. Haque said the institute began to see problems when Prof. John Rogge left to join the United Nations. " Since then, there is a crisis in leadership," he said. The institute had been part of the geography department within the faculty of arts, but was moved into the new Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources. " Funding dwindled," Haque said, to the point neither the Riddell faculty nor central administration would fund the institute. Haque said the dwindling interest at the U of M in the DRI had nothing to do with Brandon University's introduction several years ago of an undergraduate applied disaster emergency studies program. In fact, " That was my baby, I designed it," Haque said. nick. martin@ freepress. mb. ca U of M's Disaster Research Institute ends after 24 years Only separate organization of its kind in Canada By Nick Martin ' Provincewide, it is one of the most important areas' MATTHEW SHERWOOD / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES A pedestrian walks under a tree blocking a street following an ice storm in Toronto last December. The storm is among the areas of study in the now- disbanded DRI. TERRY BRUCE PHOTO Flooding on farmland in Harperville, Man., in 2011. A_ 06_ Feb- 18- 14_ FP_ 01. indd A6 2/ 17/ 14 9: 30: 58 PM ;