More Youth Run Away Who Attend Schools in the West, Have a Lack of Parent Involvement at School, or Have Larger Class Sizes

National Runaway Switchboard's New Study Finds a Connection Between School Characteristics and Adolescent Runaway Behavior

CHICAGO, Aug. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Many school level characteristics are predictors of youth runaway behavior, as determined in a new study released today by the National Runaway Switchboard (NRS), 24/7 hotline and online services for runaway, homeless and at-risk youth. The study reveals that it's more common for youth to run away who attend schools in the West, have less parent involvement at school or have schools with larger average class sizes.

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"Studies like this help the National Runaway Switchboard better understand what's affecting today's youth so it can continue to provide programs and services that help them," said Maureen Blaha, NRS executive director. "This study offers compelling evidence that schools need to have a comprehensive focus on the runaway issue."

The study, an analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data set conducted by Jennifer Benoit-Bryan, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois in Chicago, for NRS, is the first one to investigate the correlation between school characteristics and adolescent runaway behavior, which includes spending the night away from home without parental permission. It consists of interviewing a nationally representative sample of 12,105 American adolescents in grades 7 through 12 at two different points in their school career. 

"While a fair amount of research has analyzed the effects of school characteristics on adolescent behaviors including sexual behavior and academic achievement, the connection between school characteristics and adolescent runaway behavior has never been examined," said Benoit-Bryan.

Some key findings show:

• Both runaway episodes and nights away without permission are more common for students in schools with average class sizes over 30.
• Parent involvement matters; in schools with more than 10 percent of parents involved in the school's parent teacher association, the night away rate is 2.1 percent lower than in schools with lower levels of involvement.
• Students from schools in the south are the least likely to both run away (3.3 percent) and spend a night away (11.2 percent) from home.  Students from schools in the west are the most likely to run away (5.2 percent) and spend a night away from home (16.2 percent).

For more information, visit http://www.1800RUNAWAY.org.

SOURCE National Runaway Switchboard