A History of Psychological Research into the Runaway Phenomenon: From Delinquent to Street Kid

Abstract

A PsychINFO search and literature review revealed five major movements in the psychological study of runaway youths in the 20th century. These movements were: (i) A conceptual shiftfrom the study of running away as a behavior of delinquents to the study of runaways whose behavior is often delinquent. (ii) The influence of the Great Depression and subsequent changes from models of intellectual deficit and psychopathology to broader, multi-causal explanations, including running away as a normal reaction to adverse conditions. (iii) The sharp decline of publications related to runaways in the 1950s and reversion to deficit models. (iv) the influence of the Counterculture movement and return of multi-causal and normalized models of running away behavior. and (v) the cultural creation of the “street kid”.