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Preventing Runaways
Keep Your Teen From Becoming One of the Thousands That Run Away Each Year
By Carma Haley Shoemaker
By the end of this year, about 275,000 teens will have "run away" from home, according to the National Organization of Missing and Exploited Children. Thirty to 40 percent of these teens will become involved in some kind of "trouble" – they will be mugged, robbed, beaten, molested, raped or even killed.
Some return to their homes; others do not. So what can parents do to prevent their teens from joining the number of those that never return? Better yet, how can parents prevent their teen from running away in the first place?
They can start by studying the reasons why kids choose to leave.
The reasons behind a teenager's choice to leave home can often be serious. A study of teen runaways found that the majority left home because of perceived physical or emotional abuse, says Dr. Paul Coleman, psychologist.
"These adolescents reported that running away was a last resort – not merely a bold attempt to annoy their parents – and many wanted an opportunity to reconcile with their families," Dr. Coleman says.
While some teens leave home for problems such as emotional, mental or physical abuse, others may have reasons that, to adults, may seem less "serious" but which hold just as much bearing on a teen's decision to leave. "Secondary reasons include the inability to communicate with a parent or frequent arguments or confrontations with a stepparent, a chaotic household or to accompany a friend who is running away from home," Dr. Coleman says.
Confrontations with her fiance had Carrie Eichler's son considering leaving home. "When my first husband and I divorced, I thought that my son accepted it pretty well," says Eichler, a nurse from Ashland, Ohio. "It wasn't until I began living with my fiance that I understood that he didn't. [My son] didn't get along with my fiance, and they argued a lot. He threatened to run away several times, and each time I had to be in the middle.
