Perceived parent–child adjustment in the family reunification among a group of runaway adolescents in Hong Kong

Abstract

This qualitative research explores, from the perspectives of runaway adolescents, what kind of family responses facilitate and attract a runaway adolescent to return home and what kind of parental characteristics facilitate the adolescents’ adjustment to family reunification. The study carried out in-depth interviews with 16 adolescent boys between the ages of 13–17 in Hong Kong who, at the time of interview, had returned home after a runaway event and had been living together with their parents for considerably long and stable periods of time (from one to four years). Implications are directed toward counsellors and parents who are concerned with intervening with such at-risk adolescents.