Homeless adolescents' paths to separation from family: Comparison of family characteristics, psychological adjustment, and victimization

Although a great deal of research has addressed the dissolution of the fami ly through parental death or divorce, match less is known about the growing trend of youths separating from the family. The present study investigates three paths to adolescents' separation from their families-running away, b eing kicked out, and being removed from the home-and how they are related t o family background characteristics, current psychological symptomatology, familial relationships, and victimization on the streets. A sample of 356 h omeless adolescents was grouped according to who instigated their separatio n from family (themselves, 35.4%, their parents 33.7%, or authorities, 17.7 %). Adolescents removed from their family had the most problematic family b ackground and the runaways had the least. However, despite adequate statist ical power, no differences were found in current family relationships, psyc hological symptomatology or rates of recent victimization. These findings s uggest that the traumatic experience of homelessness,nay supersede the diff erential background factors, resulting in equally high rates of distress an d victimization. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.