Teen Runaways

By Curtis Reed

The most common cause of teen runaways is family conflicts concerning such issues as curfew, skipping school, academic performance, behavior, dress code, and a teen's selection of friends. Teens may choose to runaway because of problems they are afraid to face such as bullying at school, unplanned pregnancy, sexual orientation, and issues regarding alcohol and/or drugs may also be the result of a teens decision to runaway from home. Some runaways simply prefer life on the street as opposed to the continuance of living in a seriously abusive environment.
Teens today face many obstacles and challenges. Issues within the home, school, and social networking environments play a pivotal role in the behavioral and emotional distress of teens. Therapy Insider is a child placement service utilized by many parents of troubled teens. Therapy Insider offers many forms of effective therapeutic treatment for troubled teens struggling to overcome hardships.

Understanding the reasons behind a teen's choice to runaway is vitally important in identifying the underlying issues and preventing the destructive behaviors from repeating themselves. Various behavioral disorders such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) or Conduct Disorder, for instance, may be the root cause of a teen's negative behavior.

The most difficult question many parents of runaway teens face is whether they should allow their child to return home, or to place them into alternative treatment in order for the teen to receive the help they need. The severity of the teen's behavior should be taken into consideration before making such decisions. The family advocates at Therapy Insider can't advise that a parent allow a teen with violent and abusive behavior back into the household anymore than they would advise a friend to take back an abusive and violent husband. For teens displaying acts of violence, it may be safer and more effective for the violent teen to be placed into a therapeutic treatment facility in order to allow both parties to heal from the damage that has been done.

If the runaway teen does not have a history of becoming violent or abusive, family therapy may help resolve the situation. In most cases, troubled teen runaways return within 2-14 days and generally move from one friend's house to another. There are those, however, who fall into a lifestyle and stay longer. Once they take to the streets, the more dangerous the situation becomes. Surveys of 432 teens, many of which are runaway teens, who live on the streets of Los Angeles revealed that 71% of them had either a severe drug or alcohol addiction, and sometimes even both. More than 80% have resorted to practices of prostitution, drug dealing, or have taken up the hobby of robbery in order to obtain money for food and/or their addiction.

Therapy Insider Sponsors Multiple Therapeutic Treatment Options for Parents and Families of Teen Runaways

Teen runaways are prime targets for all types of predators and sometimes meet tragic consequences. Parents must, therefore, stay consistent with attempting to reach them and should seek therapeutic treatment options to utilize upon their return home.