The following appeared on theWeb site Science News Today In a recent survey of more than 5 000 adolescents the teens who reported eating the most meals with their families were the least likely to use illegal drugs tobacco or alcohol Family meals were als

The author claims a there is causality factor between the fact that adolescents spend time with their families - by having family meals together - and the thwarting those adolescents from engaging in bad behaviors, which include the use alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs. There author fails to make a convincing conclusion and his argument is thriving with loopholes, from providing no information of the population he has surveyed, through a limited scope for the definition of bad behavior, to a partial image, at best, of what are the percentage of the cases by which he has concluded the outcome.

The survey of more than 5,000 adolescents fails to inform of the demographics from which the survey population is drawn from. A poorly chosen population cut, could lead to extreme bias due to lack of variance in the variety of the test subjects - there must be large variety on all accounts. For example, the 5,000 could all have come from the same provincial small town, in which little drug, alcohol or tobacco use is not spread through to begin with. A more extreme example could be an assortment of adolescent children of the Amish community. The socio-economic class plays an extremely important part of the results - should all the population come from middle-high classes, where domestic issues and bad conduct are not spread, we would not receive a true image of what are the factors that reveal what leads to criminal behavior at adolescents.

Second, suppose all the survey population size and variety was large and thoroughly varied, the conclusion to which the author has reached, is that bad behavior could be avoided by having a high number of family meals. The very definition of bad behavior, presented in the argument is lacking - since bad behavior might be considered any of the three factors - or result from them - it does not include many other forms of behavior - stealing, breaking and entering, bullying - be it online or in real life and more. Those who stay with their family and spend a lot of time together, having enjoyable meals, might very well sit at the dinner table and bully other children on Facebook - not an unprecedented or unheard of case. Thus, those who have the most meals with their families might be the least involved with tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs - but the conclusion that they are not involved with bad conduct is simply wrong. The survey also fails to prove a causality between a low rate of joint family meals and a rise in bad behavior - and yet, it concludes a conclusion, tacitly implying that those children who do not eat enough meals with their families - will engage in bad behavior - a conclusion for which no evidence with shown.

Finally, if we assume all the previous to be true, we are not presented with factual numbers. Sure, we are given the fact that 30% of the adolescents who were asked, responded they ate at least seven meals a week with their families. There is no information regarding what is the behavior conduct of these 30% and what is the sub group size, out of those 30%. There might be only 10 such cases and the rest, could be highly involved with any of the three factors regarded by the author as "bad behavior" - or any other type of misdeeds. Since we are not presented with information regarding what is the percentage of cases on which the author claims his conclusion, the conclusion cannot be ascertained.

In summary, due to several unwarranted assumptions, alongside missing data and a dubious survey, the author fails to make a convincing case, thus reaching a wrong conclusion.