There were not much studies conducted on the identity aspects of runaway kids, but studies such as mental health status of runaway adolescents (Khurana, Sharma, Jena, Saha, Ingle, 2004), psychosocial background and behavioral and emotional disorders of homeless and runaway youth (Feitel, Margetson, Chamas, Lipman, 1992), etc were conducted on the mental health problems and psychological problems that are faced by runaway kids. These studies state that runaway kids face a lot of problems like depression, various kinds of abuses, attempting of suicide, behavioral problems, etc. These problems can in turn affect their identity of self and their identity with others.
A study was conducted in India on runaway adolescent boys to evaluate and assess the psychological problems between them and to determine the risk factors. The design of the study was cross-sectional and was administered at a child observation home for boys in Delhi. The age group of the runaway boys who were included in this study was 10 to 16 years of age. Kazdin’s hopelessness scale for
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Hundred and forty youth completed the interview and it showed that they have mental health problems like; conduct disorder, depression, fulfillment of the DSM-III criteria for and emotional and behavioral disorder and attempt of suicide (Feitel, Margetson, Chamas, Lipman, 1992).
A study was conducted between adolescent runaways and adolescents who never ran away. A self administered questionnaire which was confidential was used. The runaways who were administered in this study indicated that situational stresses affected them through which their functioning was impaired. These stresses included relation with family, schools, etc. It was noticed that runaways are more attached or drawn to their peers for help ( Goldmeier, Dean,