title: Why do some boys run away from home?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Insufficient research has been done to look for the factors compelling children to make street, their home. The study was conducted at a Child Observation Home to which street children from all over Delhi, are brought.
  
  
  METHODS
  Each boy admitted during the specified 6 months period was interviewed. Chi2 and Fisher's test were applied. A total of 400 boys were studied, 9.8% of these had not run away from their homes and 89.2% were "Runaways". These two groups were compared and following factors were found associated with the "Runaway" group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Majority (55%) had left home between 10-12 year of age. They were more from "Joint" families. A higher percentage had literate fathers. A higher percentage had no parent earning and a higher proportion of "Not Runaways" had only the mother earning. Presence of a step parent, guardian other than the parents and intra-familial physical abuse were found associated with "Runaway" group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most common reason for running away was; beating by parents/relatives, followed by a desire for economic independence (28.5%). Other reasons were maltreatment by step parent/s, being both parents dead argument with parent etc. The factors emerging can be useful for identifying high-risk families with children in pre adolescent age and hence for prevention and rehabilitation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India. sheeloopoonam@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Poomima Agnihotri
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.forename: Neena
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gulati
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Sethi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mehra
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D018453:Homeless Youth / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012419:Runaway Behavior / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*