Families dining out with children are becoming an important customer segment revealing a personal preference for convenience, timely service, menu variety, and child entertainment. According to united states industry figures, families dining out with children constitute twenty percent of estimated commercial restaurant sales. Although the restaurant industry is segmenting customer markets for the 1990's, most restaurateurs still define customer markets using instinct versus market segmentation research.

By targeting families with children, the researcher investigated family dining attitudes according to gender, income, ages of children in the family unit, and frequency of dining out. The research was an exploratory investigation, identifying family dining attitudes toward full service restaurant products and services. Survey data was collected and analyzed, using a convenience sample of families in Fairfax County, Virginia.