Family meal customs and perceived change among respondents from selected Turkic backgrounds

Family meals can enact hospitality, religious expression, age relations and expectations about proper conduct, but continuity should not be inferred from cultural description alone. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined family meal customs and perceived change in a non-probability online sample of 239 adults from selected Turkic national or ethnic backgrounds. The bilingual Kazakh–Turkish questionnaire contained demographic questions and 12 closed-ended study items. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for the full sample. Respondents commonly reported following family traditions as fully as possible (66.9%), always performing prayer or blessing at meals (66.5%), preparing traditional foods for guests (74.9%) and showing special respect for elders (87.9%). Perceptions of change nevertheless coexisted with these reported practices: 51.5% stated that table culture had changed, while some traditions remained, and 30.5% perceived substantial change. We interpret this coexistence through the author-developed term ‘differentiated continuity’, referring to unequal patterns of maintenance, modification and perceived change across distinct dimensions of family meal life.