Critical Thinking 1
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Southern Union State Community College *
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200
Subject
Philosophy
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
docx
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2
Uploaded by AgentBookPrairieDog15
Dining and Drugs: The Surprising Correlation
taken from www.ucg.org (website for the United Church of God, a Christian religious denomination based in the United States)
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University has documented the importance of family dinners and their correlation with lessened drug and alcohol abuse. Their findings revealed that the more often children and teens eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, consume alcohol or use drugs. Compared to children who have fewer than three family dinners per week, children who have frequent
family dinners are: • At 70 percent lower risk for substance abuse. • Half as likely to try cigarettes. • Half as likely to be daily cigarette smokers. • Half as likely to try marijuana. • One third less likely to try alcohol. • Half as likely to get drunk monthly. • Likely to get better grades in school. • Less likely to have friends who drink alcohol and use marijuana. • 40 percent more likely to say future drug use will never happen. If there were a magic wand that could be waved to reverse the trend of substance abuse
in youth, a key ingredient would be to make sure every child had dinner with his or her
parents at least five times a week. Setting aside a minimum of a half hour—an hour
being better—would produce noticeable results.
Critical Thinking Activity #1
Read the article Dining and Drugs: The Surprising Correlation
and answer the following questions:
1.
What is this article’s claim, or what are you being asked to believe or accept?
This article claims that there is a strong correlation between family dinners and the
reduced risk of indulging in prohibited activities like smoking, doing drugs, and consuming alcohol among teens and children. 2.
What evidence is provided in the article to support this claim?
Evidence provided from the article includes findings from the
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University,
informing the public that children and teens who have frequent family dinners are at a “70 percent lower risk for substance abuse”. More specific findings include a lower likelihood of trying
cigarettes, trying marijuana, consuming alcohol, having friends who drink alcohol, and using marijuana. Plus, children and teens are also more likely to say no to drugs in the future and get more satisfactory grades in school.
3.
What alternative ways could this evidence be interpreted?
Alternative interpretations you could consider would be that this correlation may not imply causation or that some factors not in this article may contribute to this correlation.
4.
What biases might impact your view of this article, its claim, and the evidence it provides?
Your personal view on the importance of family dinners, the cultural and socioeconomic influences among individual families, and the source of this information are some biases that could impact my view about this article, claim, and evidence provided could impact your viewings.
5.
What additional evidence would help you evaluate the claim and alternative explanations?
Added evidence that would help me evaluate the claim and alternative explanations would include studies tracking the impact family dinners have on substance abuse over a period, considering diverse demographics, and maybe exploring other variables that influence substance abuse among children and teens. For instance, bullying, low self-esteem, or peer pressure.
6.
What conclusions are most reasonable or likely?
The most reasonable and likely conclusion from this article would be that family dinners may play a role in reducing substance abuse risks among children and teens. Family dinners may also play a role in their behavior because drugs and alcohol do play adverse roles in one’s behavior. Regardless, further research and consideration of variables factors are needed to fully understand this correlation.
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