In summary, family mealtimes are important for the development of positive dietary behaviours and in protecting against disordered eating behaviours. However, gender differences and links with anxiety and depression have also been highlighted. To date, current research has focused on the relationships between family mealtime characteristics and disordered eating behaviours alone, using specific questions to assess unhealthy weight control behaviours (extreme and less extreme), binge eating with loss of control and chronic dieting (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2004).