J Korean Community Nurs.  2001 Mar;12(1):105-114.

Literature Review on Adolescent Runaways

• Jung WS
• Park SA

Abstract

It was orginally thought that runaway adolescents needed to improve their ability to cope with personal problems based on their own understanding of them. As a result we exchanged theoretical background on the matter as follows: 1. Generally adolescency is a transitional period from childhood to adulthood and characterized by a dramatic conversion period with unique phenomena relative to other periods. Futhermore it is the key transitional moment in the development of an adult personality. 2. Runaway adolescents are defined as "adolescents who leave impulsively or intentionally their homes without permission of their parents for at least 24 hours." 3. The reason for this behavior are generally regarded as complex interdependent and dynamic including a cast-away factor seducing factors and other action-provoking factors. There is also another view to explain the adolescent run-away as a combination of personal domestic academic peer or socal factors. 4. We found that adolescent runaways have different attitudes dependent on the reasons and procedures of runaways lifestyles of adolescents and results of their runaway experience. In conclusion runaway adolescents are in a very important period in their development and growth of bodies and minds but are in a great crisis for various complex reasons. Therefore we propose that nursing should provide effective nursing interventions to improve the ability of the runaway adolescents address these problems by themselves.

MeSH Terms

Adolescent*
Adult
Child
Growth and Development
Homeless Youth*
Humans
Intention
Life Style
Nursing
Parents