Contrary to the popular misconception a runaway child is not the same as a child who slips out at night to be with friends. Usually the child runs away from the home to avoid confrontation of any unpleasant or unwanted situations in future. There are various problem issues within the family of the child, which increase the risk of a runaway.

Here are some potential risk factors:

Child abuse or child neglect: Abuse can be any physical injury to the child, which is not caused by accident.  Abuses include reckless and negligent use of drugs during pregnancy. Neglect is negligent treatment or maltreatment of the child, which causes actual harm, or substantial risk of harm to the child's health, welfare and safety.

Alcohol or other drug use: Use of alcohol or drug abuse by teenagers is another potential risk factor leading to a deviant behavior among the teenagers. 

Impact of divorce on the teenager: The decision of divorce, though handled responsibly will not have positive impact on the child’s life and psyche.

Oppositional and defiant behavior: Several studies point that the Oppositional and defiant behavior is the result of family patterns of the child and interactions and the manner in which the family socializes a child. Environmental factors, which influence the development defiant behavior, include family systems, educational systems and the impact of friends and peer relationships.

Improper handling of grief information: A sudden death in the family is a great loss to the family as a whole but to a child who experiences that loss it is also confusing. When a child doesn't get an explanation to something, they make an assumption and decree it a fact. In this case the assumptions can extremely traumatize a child.