The number of youth who run away from home each year in the United States is estimated to be about two million. They flee from their homes, where they are subject to maltreatment, including physical, emotional, and sexual acts of abuse and violence. Many of them are also neglected and do not have sufficient necessities to assure the support of wholesome familial or community environments. These youth could perceive running away as an escape from an abusive or neglectful home environment.
This secondary data analysis study consisted of a descriptive, correlational design using The Integrative Model for the Study of Child Development in Minority Populations in the United States (Garcia Coll et al., 1996) as a conceptual framework to guide the selection of variables. The sample was comprised of 78 youth (43 females, 35 males) who were admitted to a shelter for runaway and homeless youth. Data were collected using face-to-face interviews between the months of June, 1991 to January, 1992. Standardized instruments were used to measure life events in the past 12 months and externalizing/internalizing behaviors.
Results showed that there was no significant association between the life events in the past 12 months and the youth’s runaway behaviors. No significant associations were found between the history of sexual abuse and their runaway behaviors. Results of the logistic regression analyses showed that both the externalizing and the internalizing behaviors, separately, were associated with the runaway behavior, but the internalizing behaviors were not significantly associated with the runaway behaviors when they were 9 added to the externalizing behaviors into the same equation. Furthermore, the externalizing behaviors were significantly associated with the runaway behavior when they were entered with the internalizing behaviors into the same equation, controlling for the youth’s ethnicity. The correlation matrix explained this finding by showing the high correlation between the externalizing and the internalizing behaviors revealing that youth with high scores on the externalizing behaviors are the same youth with high scores on the internalizing behaviors. In addition, ethnicity was a significant predictor of the runaway behaviors.
These findings raise the question about the need to understand the personality characteristics and behaviors of these youth. In addition, nurses and health care professionals should be concerned about these issues since these behaviors have a deleterious influence on the youth, their families, the community, and the nation.