Mental health status of runaway adolescents

There are 47.22 million homeless and runaway adolescents roaming on the streets of our country (Voluntary Health Association of India — VHAI) of which one lakh are in Delhi. Very little is known about them, their needs or their experiences.Objective: (1) To assess the psychological problems amongst the runaway adolescent boys. (2) To determine possible risk factors.Methods: This study was cross-sectional in design and done at a child observation home for boys in Delhi. All runaway boys aged 10 to 16 years of age were included in the study. The study was conducted from 15^th June to 15^th July 2001. A comprehensive schedule consisting of five parts, viz identification data, hopelessness scale for children by Kazdin, Beck depression inventory, Psychological survey questionnaire and RUTTER-B2 scale were used to assess various mental health problems.Results: 20.7% of children were found to have high hopelessness and 8% of children had depression. 2% of children revealed that they had attempted suicide at any point of time in life. Among children with high hopelessness, 3.2% had ever attempted suicide. 8.3% of the depressed children gave history of suicidal attempts. 38% of children gave history of physical abuse, 14.6% of sexual abuse and a large number reported substance abuse. 69.33% were found to have behavioral problems (i.e. scored above the recommended cut off score of 9). 81% of children had antisocial behavior, 7.8% were neurotic and 10.5% remained undifferentiated.Conclusion: Runaway adolescents suffer from a wide array of mental health problems and there is a need for a broad based psychosocial intervention programme.