Sibship composition and the adolescent runaway phenomenon.

A study of predominately White middle class adolescent runaways was made to determine if a relationship between descriptive variables, family configuration, or birth order variables and the adolescent's decision to run away from home could be found. It was found that runaways tended to come from larger than average families and that the majority (54.9%) were either from families where all siblings were of the opposite sex or where there was a very young sibling.