Meat consumption in Denmark is too high, with the average person eating one kilogram per week — twice the world average. National dietary guidelines say this should be at least cut in half for both health and sustainability reasons. However, reducing meat intake doesn’t always take place on an individual level. Rather, it often starts in the family home around the dinner table. This study looked to gain a deeper understanding of how real-world family dynamics affect decisions around meat-free diets, and particularly the role adolescents play as a driver or barrier to such change.

Researchers conducted several in-depth interviews with 20 Danish families at their homes between October 2021 and January 2022. This included 19 mothers, 11 fathers, and 26 adolescents aged 15 to 20 years. They first interviewed parents and their teenage children together to gauge what a typical day of eating looks like as a family.

Families then performed a visual task that involved sorting images and statements about their food-related preferences and values. Statements included phrases such as “eating together,” “homemade food,” “price,” and “meat-free days.” This task encouraged families to openly talk about and uncover any hidden priorities that shape what they eat every day and why.

Next, the researchers interviewed parents without their children to explore how they handled varying food preferences in the family and how this affects decisions on what to have for dinner. They inquired about child-parent relations, wanting to know whether adolescents were involved in meal planning and other foodwork activities, such as grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning. Parents also discussed their views on sustainability and how it relates to their household’s food consumption.

Results showed that keeping the peace around the dinner table was a central aim for families. Often what they ate wasn’t important. Spending time together and connecting at mealtimes was the real priority.

The desire to maintain harmony and avoid conflict had a dual effect on food choices and behaviors at home, simultaneously encouraging and preventing efforts toward more sustainable eating. For example, a request from one child to eat more sustainably might get pushed to the side to prevent arguments. This can stop change from happening, especially if parents have multiple children and want to please a picky eater who prefers meat. By contrast, parents might adapt their meals to the child’s preferences to minimize confrontation, introducing more meat-free dinners to encourage them to eat together.

The interviews revealed a child-centered approach during family meals. In other words, parents pay special attention to what their adolescents want to eat. Teens therefore play a gatekeeping role in shifting household food consumption toward dietary change. On the one hand, they can be the biggest barrier to change, always asking for the same, familiar foods, such as lasagne, spaghetti bolognese, steak, or chicken. On the other hand, they can be a powerful driver for change whereby parents adapt the family’s eating patterns based on their teenager’s desire to consume less meat and eat more vegetables. For example, one mother explained how her daughter becoming vegetarian reshaped how the entire family eats. To maintain good family relations, parents might compromise or realign their habits to accommodate their child’s choices.

Foodwork, particularly planning and coming up with new ideas on what to eat, was also key in shifting the family’s entire diet. The research found that mothers more often performed this type of “invisible” foodwork. The adolescent is the one who initiates or suggests a new food or diet, but it’s the parent, usually the mother, who does the planning to make it happen, and then the new meal is adopted as a family.

While the results demonstrate the role that adolescents play in potentially driving more sustainable eating, interviews were only conducted in one country and across a narrow socioeconomic range. The participants were lower-middle to upper-middle class, with most parents having a higher education. Behaviors around food consumption might vary across social classes and countries. The authors believe future research should consider exploring meat reduction among different countries, educational backgrounds, as well as LGBTQI+ households who weren’t represented in this study.

Altering our diet goes beyond individual decision-making or preferences on sustainability. Changing what’s on someone’s dinner plate starts at home and depends on complex intra-family dynamics and the ways in which families plan their meals. Child-parent relationships can affect whether a family is successful in reducing the amount of meat they consume, driven by the desire to maintain peace and avoid conflict. Thus, when a family manages to eat less meat, this is a result of collaboration between parents and children.

Advocates can use these insights into how families choose their food to help support a shift toward more sustainable eating at home. For instance, plant-based foods could be marketed as a way to bring the family together, while plant-based food programs in schools could be used to inspire adolescents to share new ways of eating with their parents.