The stories of four among hundreds of runaway youths treated in Slesnick's program illustrate points in this volume, which offers a summary of the information known about runaway and homeless children and teenagers. In addition to describing the breadth of this problem, this book explains different types of runaway and homeless youths, and why they leave home by choice or are asked to leave. Slesnick also explains some of the factors common to these children and their families, as well as what happens to the youths when they leave home. Direction and support are provided for parents from this clinical psychologist, who notes that there are few resources and programs across the nation designed specifically to help families with runaway youths.

Told by a parent and three runaways themselves, the stories of four people trying to understand the causes and cope with the afte- effects of running away serve to illustrate research results and issues presented here. This work will be of interest not only to parents of runaways and to mental health professionals, but also to students of adolescent psychology, family psychology, and clinical child psychology.

NATASHA SLESNICK is Director of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Program at the University of New Mexico. She is the principal investigator on five federally funded projects to evaluate and develop treatments for the youths and their families. Slesnick is also a Research Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of New Mexico and Associate Director of the Clinical Research Branch at the UNM Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions.