To study the importance of family meals in adolescents, 251 middle school students were surveyed through aquestionnaire on their family meal patterns, dietary behaviors, food intake, and life satisfaction. The family meals weredefined as “meals with all family members living together” by 62.2% of the students. For the frequency of family meals,42.2% of the students replied having family meals “More than once a day”. A common reason for the difficulty in havinga family meal was a “lack of time” (73.3% of the students). Students tended to respond that they would be most fond inhaving meals with entire family members with traditional Korean food. Having more frequent family meals was found tobenefit both individual and familial dietary behavior. In terms of food intake according to the frequency of family meals, thegroup having frequent family meals consumed significantly more rice, tofu, legumes, meats, fishes, eggs, green vegetables,seaweeds, fruits, milk, and milk products. This indicates that students can achieve a balanced diet through family meals. Interms of emotional status, the group having more frequent family meals showed a higher satisfaction with their daily life,health, nutritional status, and care from their relatives. In terms of personal mental status, the group having more frequentfamily meals was also found to be more effective at controlling undesirable emotions such as loneliness, indignation, andlethargy. As a result of this study, students in the group having more frequent family meals were found to have a positivedietary behavior, a balanced nutrition, a higher life satisfaction, and a more stable mental status. This result is useful asnutritional and educational information in schools to impress upon the public the importance of family meals foradolescents.