Runaway (dependent)

A runaway is a child or minor who has left their parents or legal guardians without permission. A person who runs away usually does so because of problems in the family.Smollar, 1999; Robertson & Toro, 1998  Girls run away more often than boys.

 Risk factors 
Studies suggest that most children run away for one or more of these reasons: 

 Their parents do not care much about them
 There is physical or sexual abuse in the family
 At least one parent is addicted to drugs or alcohol
 There is violence in the family
When the runaway children were asked in a 2007 study, half of them said they had at least one parent who abused alcohol. A third had at least one parent who was addicted to drugs.

After studying runaways in a province of Pakistan, a 2011 journal article concluded that other children gave the runaway the idea to leave home in nearly 9 out of 10 cases (89%).

The likelihood of depression among female runaways is related to family conflict and communication. Depression in male runaways is typically related to the father being an alcoholic and poor family relationships. Negative interactions within the family appear to greatly influence depressive symptoms for both genders.

 Problems after running away 
According to a 2010 article, about half of the children that run away will no longer go to school. Some will become homeless. 

Runaways are at a higher risk of:

 Suffering from depression
 Trying to die by suicide
 Becoming criminals or victims 
 Becoming addicted to drugs
 Getting sexually transmitted infections
 Having an unwanted pregnancy
 Being sexually exploited
 Post-traumatic stress disorder (trauma generally begins with runaway's family experiences and worsens with additional traumatic events) 

 Related pages 

 Poverty
 Homelessness

References

Category:Family
Category:Human behavior
Category:Street children

 Other websites 

 National Runaway Switchboard for young people in the United States and U.S. Territories
 The Runaway Helpline for young people in the United Kingdom
 Family and Youth Services Bureau 
 National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth