Violence in families of adolescent runaways.
Adolescents who run away from home frequently give many reasons for their behavior, but rarely has an examination of physical maltreatment as a precipitating factor for leaving home been carefully conducted. The Conflict Tactics Scale, a measure of how families resolve conflicts, was completed by 199 adolescents who ran away to a youth shelter. Some 78% of the adolescents self-reported significant physical violence directed toward themselves by a parent in the one year prior to their running away. There were no significant effects of age or sex on the amount of physical violence. A comparison between runaway adolescents and adolescents labeled abused reveals no significant differences in at-risk child abuse scores. An argument is presented for crisis counselors and youth shelter workers to more carefully examine and treat family violence in adolescents who run.
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012419:Runaway Behavior; D014754:Violence