How Do American Parents Teach Table Manners to Their Children during the Child-rearing Stage?

Abstract

This study investigates how table manners are passed down within American families, especially by young and middle-aged parents who are both busy working and child-rearing. We distributed questionnaires which required answers to how table manners were taught in their childhood and how they taught table manners to their own children. We analyzed the answers of forty three respondents aged between 20 and 49. The table manners were assigned to six categories, the respondents valuing interpersonal manners and aesthetic manners the most. It was suggested that Americans valued table manners because they were important in developing social skills. The respondents considered that their discipline was more relaxed compared to their parents’ generation, due to families being a lot busier and their lives in general becoming more casual and individualized than before. The results of ANOVA suggested that eating meals together played an important role in passing down table manners.