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Adolescent boys and girls (N= 246) took part in a study of societal, personal, and interpersonal correlates of running away behavior. Correlational analyses showed the behavior to be related to low self-esteem, depression, suicidal ideation, negative stress, alcohol and drug use, truancy, and dissatisfaction with received social support. Multiple regression analysis identified suicidal ideation, alcohol use, dissatisfaction with social support, and truancy as salient predictors.
Some adolescents experience their families as unpleasant. They do not feel at home, their affective ties with other members are weak, and they distance themselves from the family and its norms and customs. As part of this alienation, they may show avoidance and escape behaviors (Angenent & De Man, 1993), including running away from home (i.e., absent from home for at least one night without their parents' or guardians' consent). Conservative estimates suggest that each year about two percent of children between the ages of 12 and 18 run away from home (Brennan, Huizinga, & Elliott, 1978; Edelbrock, 1980).
Running away has been the focus of research by psychologists, sociologists, clinicians, psychiatrists and educators, and many variables have been found to be related. Many of these correlates, however, are interrelated and no effort appears to have been made to identify the more salient ones. Therefore, the present study focused on behaviors frequently reported to be associated with running away, with the aim of isolating prominent predictors of the behavior in question.
Correlates of runaway behavior may be grouped into three categories: societal factors, personal characteristics, and interpersonal relationships (Angenent, 1993). This classification guided the selection of the following variables: anomy, gender, self-esteem, locus of control, depression, suicidal ideation, stress, drug and alcohol use, family status, parental control in child rearing, academic performance, truancy, and social support.
Runaway behavior may be caused by changes in society that occur in each period in history (Ambrosino,1971). As agents of society, parents transfer societal norms and values to their children, but society changes over time. Traditionally agreed upon norms become blurred and a condition of anomy develops. Parents may teach their children norms and values in which they personally believe, but which may not reflect contemporary thinking. Their children may become aware of the relative nature of these norms and values, and parent-child...