I personally don't believe not eating meals together is the key. see when I was growing everyone in my family ate at meals together all of them - breakfast lunch and dinner and there was plenty of talk going on around that table. but because the abuse and so on was happening outside of meal time having meals together and talking during mealtimes was not the solution. what went on beyond the meal table was the cause for divorces in the family, family members turning to drugs and alcohol and so on. It wasn't the lack of closeness at the meal tables that resulted in what was behind the divorces and so on.

The reason for the divorces in my family was the fact that those that once loved each other developed different interests in what love was and whether or not they wanted to spend the rest of their lives fighting in front of the children due to the fact that they were no longer in love with each other to the point of marriage.

The reason some members of my family chose drugs was not because of lack of eating meals together and lack of conversation on the topic= for our family talked often about drugs and alcohol and we also had drugs and alcohol talks in school. My family members turning to drugs and alcohol was that they CHOSE to try the drugs and alcohol with their friends due to peer pressure and liked the result of those drugs - euphoria, floaty hypnotic feelings.

Depression is a mental illness that runs in my family. that is not deturmmined based on whether or not people eat meals together and talk about that illness. Its a chemical imballance of the brain.

Cancer runs in my family and that is not determined by whether or not we ate at meals together and talked about that desease.
Statics are great for the target groups that are poled to be a part of that statistics study but they do not take into consideration each and every person in the wolrd so IN MY OPINION statistics can and are biased at times by who the people performing the study are tageting and poling..

Physical and mental health problems aside I believe that it is peoples CHOICES that lead to their having drugs and alcohol and divorce problems not whether or not they eat meals together.