A questionnaire study was performed to identify the possible influence of a mother's attitude to a good diet and her feeling of fulfillment in life on mother-child communication at meal times. The ...participants were mothers with children in the senior class of kindergarten, and kindergarten teachers. The children each drew a picture of their favorite meal at home. A causal model was established, in which the mother's experience of meal time in her childhood was an exogenous variable and the present state of communication with her child was the dependent variable. Those children who did not communicate well with their mothers were less interested in eating and less vigorous in daily life, and tended to have problems with friends. The mothers who did not communicate well with their children tended to not to lead a fulfilling life and had undesirable ideas about meal times. Moreover, their childhood experience at meal times was not pleasant.
