<p>Aim:The study's aim is to examine whether and to what extent elementary school pupils aged 13 and 16 report that they ever have been forced to leave home by parents, have run away from home voluntarily or have seriously considered doing so. The aim is also to illuminate which circumstances contribute to these break-ups. Method: A quantitative approach is used; a survey material consisting of 1193 questionnaires is analysed. The data material has been used in earlier studies but the issue addressed here has not been studied earlier. The circumstances analysed are gender, ethnicity, the parents’ religious belief and education, living conditions (sharing home with both parents, one of them or none), contacts with professionals (psychologist, school nurse or curator), physical and mental wellbeing, way of upbringing (liberal vs authoritarian) and communication with parents. The findings are compared to a similar study from Great Britain. Results: The results show that 4 percents of the young people have been forced to leave home some time during their life and 9 percent have run away and stayed away for at least 24 hours. The proportion of young people seriously considering leaving home was 22 percents. It is concluded that being forced to leave home has different explanations compared to running away by own decision. It is thus two different phenomena. A few risk factors are identified.</p>

Aim:The study's aim is to examine whether and to what extent elementary school pupils aged 13 and 16 report that they ever have been forced to leave home by parents, have run away from home voluntarily or have seriously considered doing so. The aim is also to illuminate which circumstances contribute to these break-ups. Method: A quantitative approach is used; a survey material consisting of 1193 questionnaires is analysed. The data material has been used in earlier studies but the issue addressed here has not been studied earlier. The circumstances analysed are gender, ethnicity, the parents’ religious belief and education, living conditions (sharing home with both parents, one of them or none), contacts with professionals (psychologist, school nurse or curator), physical and mental wellbeing, way of upbringing (liberal vs authoritarian) and communication with parents. The findings are compared to a similar study from Great Britain. Results: The results show that 4 percents of the young people have been forced to leave home some time during their life and 9 percent have run away and stayed away for at least 24 hours. The proportion of young people seriously considering leaving home was 22 percents. It is concluded that being forced to leave home has different explanations compared to running away by own decision. It is thus two different phenomena. A few risk factors are identified.