Preventive Management of Running Away from Home: A Cultural Approach

The present study aims to examine the preventive management of running away from home according to cultural, social, and economic approaches. The research employs an exploratory strategy and a mixed-methodology approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative data was collected through document analysis, case studies of runaway incidents, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, while quantitative data was collected through researcher-made questionnaire. Thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis of structural equations were used for the quantitative data. The results indicate that the management of running away from home with a cultural, social, and economic approach involves 34 fundamental concepts, 3 organizing concepts, and one comprehensive concept. The factor loadings of all items of the three factors (cultural, social, and economic) were found to be greater than 0.4, except for item 13 (economic factor), and were deemed sufficient and relevant to the research. The findings also showed good model fit, with R2 values for cultural, economic, and social factors being above 0.19 and Q2 values being above 0.15. Based on the mean ranks of the components, the cultural component was found to be the most significant (average rank of 2.24), followed by the social (2.01) and economic (1.75) components.