New study says American families are overwhelmed by clutter, rarely eat together, and are generally stressed out about it all - The Boston Globe

New research by UCLAcq-affiliated social scientists concludes that American families are overwhelmed by clutter, too busy to go in their own backyards, and rarely eat dinner together. The team of anthropologists and archeologists spent four years studying 32 middle-class Los Angeles families in their natural habitat — their toy-littered homes — and made observations so grim that the lead researcher used the word “disheartening” to describe the situation we’ve gotten ourselves into.