US Trends in Eating with Others, 2003-2023

• In Event: 40821 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 12. Place-Based Solidarity & Meaning-Making

Abstract

This study examines trends in how commensality, the act of eating together, has changed across the past two decades. Using nationally representative data from the 2003-2023 American Time Use Survey (N=220,965), we utilized weighted regression models to assess how eating with others has varied by time of day and week and across demographic subgroups since the beginning of the 21st century. Results indicate that eating has become an increasingly solitary activity since 2003, as the proportion of time spent eating alone rose from 25% to 34% over two decades. Eating with others has decreased for nearly every demographic category, most noticeably for those who live alone. Though married adults and those with children continue to eat with others at a relatively higher rate, people with these household arrangements have experienced a steady decline in social eating. Furthermore, the precipitous drop in eating with others in 2020 has not recovered post-COVID but has remained similar to pandemic levels. Results suggest that Americans are undergoing a transformation in their eating practices, similar to societies where eating alone has long been more common.

Authors

• Hayoung David Oh, Baylor University

• Markus H. Schafer, Baylor University