On the Prevalence of Running Away from Home

Longitudinal predictors of homelessness: findings from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-97

“…Within the UK it is estimated that 1 in 9 youth will away before the age of 16 (Social Exclusion Unit, 2002), while an estimated 1.7 million youth in the US run away annually (Hammer, Finkelhor, & Sedlak, 2002) Runaway experiences as an adolescent may be one of the strongest predictors of youth homelessness, with many homeless individuals reporting previous run away experiences (Fothergill, Doherty, Robertson, & Ensminger, 2012; Shelton et al, 2009; Simons & Whitbeck, 1991). While the majority of adolescents who run away return home in less than a month (Hammer et al, 2002), many youth also report multiple runaway episodes (Pergamit, 2010). Youth with multiple runaway episodes generally report more severe individual and family problems than those that report one runaway episode (Baker et al, 2003; Thompson & Pillai, 2006), and may be most at risk of future homelessness.…”

State Mental Health Systems for Children: A Review of the Literature and Available Data Sources

“…Summarizing results from five different data sources, Pergamit (2010) found that from 6.4 to 7.6 percent of youth run away from home in a year. The prevalence over the full adolescent period is much higher, with about 20 percent running away at least once and 10 percent running away two or more times (Pergamit 2010). (Kessler, Berlund, Demler, Jin, Merikangas, and Walters 2005).…”

Comparison of the Effect of Compassion_based Techniques and Cognitive_Behavioral Schema Therapy Techniques in Reducing Loneliness and Emotion Regulation Difficulties in Runaway Adolescent Girls

“…Running away from home exposes young people to a variety of risks including violence, crime, drugs, prostitution, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and health problems. Young people running away from home have high levels of behavioral problems including substance abuse (Johnson, Whitbeck & Hoyt, 2005), school dropout (De Man, 2000), membership in criminal groups (Yoder, Whitbeck & Hoyt, 2003), criminal activities (Hammer, Finkelhor & Sedlack, 2002) sexual intercourse, sexual abuse, depression, self-harm, suicide and family rejection at the community level and various types of emotional and social trauma (Quotation from Pergamit, 2010;Karami, 2013).…”