Life Span Development II: School age and Adolescence 3 (2+1)
Lesson 23 : Problems in Identity Development
Truancy or run away
Adolescents run away from home due to disturbed family situations and parental conflicts and from school due to demands and pressures put on them.
Runaways are youth who leave home without permission- are absent for at least one night, desire to remove themselves from parental control. Majority of runaways are between 14 and 16 years of age. The three primary problems of daily living that influence adolescent runaways are:
Personal maladjustment: Runaway behaviour has been associated with various levels of dysfunctional or pathological behaviours. Runaways have low self concept ratings, feel more rejected and inadequate are more hostile, more anxious and impulsive. They are more likely to be involved in school truancy, theft, drug use, suicide threats or vandalism.
Family conflict: Eighty percent of the runaways leave home due to family problems. Their families are characterized by ineffective communication, poor parental supervision and inadequate conflict resolution patterns. These families often allow minor conflicts over issues such as clothes, hairstyles. Resolution of these conflicts is further hampered by poor communication patterns.
Parental mistreatment: Many studies found that runaways are the linked forms of parental mistreatment such as physical abuse, incest or neglect.
It is important to note that personal maladjustment, family conflict and parental mistreatment may interact or combine to influence runaway behaviour. These factors make the adolescents more vulnerable to the risks and victimization that running away causes. Ex: The lower levels of social competence and self esteem associated with runaways make them vulnerable to threats of street life as prostitution and drugs.
Participants