Children between the ages of 13 and 19 years old are said to be teenagers or teens.
A teenage child before the age of 18 is defined as a teen runaway from his or her home for at least one evening without the permission of a parent or guardian.
It is not referred to as runaway when younger children than 13 years-old or mentally sick weakened children have left their homes and are unable to find their homes and are unable to enter their homes for at least a day or longer.
In the US, it is said that one million teenage children ran away every year, and in Korea, 100,000 to 120,000 children ran away every year. The by age, adolescents, and teens aged 12 to 13 years old ran away the most (Source: Mudeung Ilbo, February 7, 2002).
Causes and motivations of teenage children to run away
· To adventure
· Because living in his own house is not fun.
· Angry and mad
· When dissatisfied with parents
· Sometimes they run away when they are unpleasant because of what happened
at home or at school, and they can run away even when nothing is unpleasant.
· When they are afraid of scolding from their parents for poor school performance
· When they are afraid of being admonished by a teacher for doing wrong studying
· When they can’t really follow the school curriculum
· When parents don’t love, when they love conditionally when they love wrong
· When parents are overly authoritative
· When discord arises between parents and children
· When brothers are jealous
· When they don’t want to go to school
· When they actually did bad behavior,
· When there is really no fact of bad behavior, but the parents suspect that
they did it.
· Because of the illusion that they would go somewhere without their
parents’ knowledge, and that if their children were not there, the parents
would find them in anxiety or that their parents would want to see them and
find them.
· They think they were treated unfairly
· When they think they have been treated maliciously by society
· To form a gang by running away with a few like-minded peers
· When they have the urge to live a more fun and adventurous life than to
live a futile life
· To earn money to help parents or siblings
· In order to live better in economic independence
· To see the world
· When they have incest sex, especially when they are sexually abused by their natural parents or stepparents
· When a mother induces or pressures her daughter to become the target of her father’s love instead of herself
· When love is rejected by mother
· When he gets kicked out of the house
· Poverty, child abuse, family destruction, impulsive personality.
· And many more
Current status of teenage children’ runaways
Teenage girls running away from home can engage in prostitution in order to live.
Teenage boys who run away from home do not call their parents to say they are embarrassed if they do not succeed, and do not disclose where they are. They can join a gang or get hired for a low wage to work hard.
It is possible to live with other runaway teenagers who agree with each other or with teenagers who have the same motives or problems.
Most of the teenage children who run away do not tell the truth about their motives.
When a parent or school authority and a teenage child dispute each other over the limits of liability that caused the problem when they ran away from school due to problems arising from the relationship between parents and children or between school and students, in most cases, teenage children. They may run away because they feel that they cannot pass the blame for the problem to their parents or school authorities.
Most of the teenage children who run away from home for a day or two, spend with other teenage friends, and return home are mentally normal. However, most of the teens who run away from home multiple times or those teens who run away repeatedly may have mental problems.
Most of the teenage children who run away from home are homeless. 75% of them engage in criminal offenses and 50% engage in prostitution. They have other serious mental problems. 50% of them have experienced child abuse and sexual abuse. Most of them have health problems other than mental problems. They may have hepatitis or sexually transmitted diseases, and it is common to abuse drugs. They tend to visit free health clinics frequently.
Treatment and countermeasures for teenage children runaways
Most teenage children who run away due to problems arising from the relationship between parents and teenage children, school authorities and teenage students, and relationships with teenage peers do not require special counseling treatment or treatment, but their relationship to each other should be improved.
If they run away from school because they don’t want to go to school, reevaluate whether the school curriculum is appropriate for the teen child, and change the curriculum to suit the teen child.
If necessary, they can study while receiving vocational training.
Special education is given on dating, sex, marriage, responsibility, independence, and future jobs.
If you have a close relationship with your teenage child and father or mother, resolve them.
Adolescents, parents and the entire family find out and resolve the motives for running away through appropriate counseling treatment.
Re-evaluate the overall family life.
Parents are overly authoritative to know if they are raising their teenage children, and if they have raised them, then raise them properly.
Teenagers who run away from home are more likely to be arrested for committing offenses before or after they reach legal adulthood.
After reaching adulthood, the rate of divorce is high and there is a high rate of mental problems and get treat appropriately.
It arranges a residence for runaway teenage children in groups, under state responsibility, so that they can make frequent contact with their families.
Provide them with appropriate education and vocational training so that they can live as constructive members of society. However, most of the teenage children who have run away from home for a long period of time cannot successfully live at home and repeat criminal acts.
What to do with the home or parents of teenage children who run away
Finding out the motives and reasons for runaways is the first task parents should do.
Most of the teenage children who try to run away from home for their own future or to help their families are conscientious, hardworking, and entrepreneurial.
Emphasizing and training the importance of starting a business while living with parents and families is important and requires adequate education, financial support, and other preparation.
Runaway for adventure makes family life more fun, helps them to join club activities, and makes them more active in community service.
Parents who know that their teenage child’s well-being will be in jeopardy if they run away should never tell a teenage child, “If you want to run away, leave the house” to a teenager who tells his parents that he will run away.
Teens will be angrier when parents say that.
Some teenagers leave the house with anger and then return after the anger subsides.
You must love them a lot so that true unconditional love can be well conveyed to your children.
If there is a problem while studying at school, the curriculum is reevaluated and education is tailored to his ability and aptitude.
You can’t prevent runaway by being overly accused, trained in corporal punishment, or trained in a way that urges you not to do so or embarrassing you.
No more meeting peers who ran away from home.
They understand their teenage children who return from home and get professional help as much as possible.
It also takes a long time to improve life security, psychotherapy, adoption, appropriate education, substance abuse treatment, general health problem solving, and problems with parents and relationships.
Runaway teens provide free calls to parents, family members, or protection authorities at the national level when they need them, so that runaway child can call their parents, relatives, and protection authorities anytime, anywhere get help over the phone.
For various reasons, teenage runaway children who cannot return to their homes find adopted parents and arrange for adoption, group home life, or independent living.
If necessary, receive appropriate diagnostic treatment from a doctor and seek economic assistance from the state with the help of social workers.