Running Away from Home

Abstract

PARENTratings of the behavior of 2,967 children aged 4-16 who had been referred for mental health services and 1,300 nonreferred children were analyzed with the goal of determining the incidence and correlates of running away from home. Running away was from 5-30 times more frequent among referred children than among normal children. Several behavioral problems were significantly associated with running away among referred children, including truancy, bad friends, poor relations with parents, disobedience, stealing, use of alcohol and drugs, lying, suicidal threats and gestures, cruelty, and destructiveness. Results suggest that for a substantial portion of runaway youth, the act of running away may be symptomatic of broader syndromes of psychopathology and patterns of maladaption, and that programs for runaways should be linked more directly to mental health services for disturbed children and their families.