Running away from place of abode by adolescents is an early sign of youth and family point in disputes and even juvenile delinquency (Bradley 1997) In the United States.

Running away from place of abode by adolescents is an early sign of youth and family point in disputes and even juvenile delinquency (Bradley 1997) In the United States, the rate of juvenile runaway is about 14% (Baker et el 2003; Kurtz et el 2000) In Hong Kong 511% of at-risk youth identified by the agency of social workers have the experience of runaway from ages 11 to 18 (Ngai, Cheung, Xie, & day-star 2001). This growth in prevalence in recent urban societies is a natural dependence of cause and effect of changing family structure (Bradley 1997) It merits special attention because the runaway adolescent is equally likely to be a victim and troublemaker (Hoyt et el 1999) Whitbeck and Hoyt (1999) also noted that the experience of runaway can amplify the risk of delinquency for adolescents, and show in one's real light them to the risk of victimization. The delinquency amplification proces is likely to generate intricate concern among about an increase in crime (Stephenson, 2001) Further, since runaway adolescents are at high risk of self-destructive behavior, this also draws public attention (Bass et al., 1992; Ennett et al., 1999) In the couple cases, the runaway adolescent is influenced from others, such as family members and youth gangs. Thus, it is necessary to focus upon adolescents' family, schools, and social circles which are stable enough to provide long-term tenors (Karabanow, 2002). These social influences, manifested in parental monitoring, teacher and classmate support, and friend relationships are the focus of the not away study of Chinese early adolescents. It highlights the preventive and facilitating weights of these influences on Chinese and adolescents' runaway. At issue is whether social reign over theory can provide an adequate framework for understanding this point in dispute Moreover, potential cultural differences in the application of social dominion government theory were investigated because as it is differences tend to be apparent when adolescents born in Hong Kong and other places (typically upon the Chinese mainland), who presumably have different cultural backgrounds, were compared.

Parental Monitoring and Teacher Support as Social Control

Social superintendence theory has long been used to explain crime and delinquency in general (Parcel & Dufur 2001; Sampson & Luab, 1993) It regards lack of social reign over as a determinant of crime and delinquency, including runaway as an early sign. Social superintendence according to the theory is significant because the individual is disposed to commit crime and does not ne to learn so behavior. Social control primarily besufficient fors to dictate the norms of accurate behavior through social support, encouragement, and relationship building. Coercive discipline, granting related to social control, is not the solution mechanism. Rather, the aim of social curb is to bolster social integration into society. With social superintend and integration, the individual would benefit from mutual support and realize its importance, thus deterring deviant behavior. For this plan parental monitoring, and teacher and classmate support help to maintain social relationships and the individual's attachment to conventional social norms. Social check arising from conventional institutions, as it is as the family and place of education is a necessary condition for eliciting desirable tenors Parents and teachers are important for generating social rule conductive to youth development and antithetical to problematic unravelling (Bazemore & Terry, 1997). Parental monitoring and teacher support expedite the adolescent's healthy unfolding (Eccles et al., 1997; Youniss et al., 1997) Further, attachment to an adult provides a stable source of support and helps hinder juvenile delinquency (Lapsley & Edgerton, 2002)

A controversial issue is the part of parental monitoring. Although social dominion government theory views parental monitoring as noncoercive in maintaining the ligature between the adolescent and parent, it usually involves one coercion that the adolescent is reluctant to accept. In the face of coercive parental reign over an adolescent may be more likely to flow away from home (Hagan & McCarthy, 1997; Paternoster & Brame, 1997; Patterson & Forgatch, 1990)

Friendship as an Obstacle to Social Control?

according to associating desirable social control with conventional adult norms, social hinder theory assumes that adolescent friendship is not significant in preventing delinquency (Haynie, 2001) However, adolescent friendship can dilute the influence of adult social govern and distract the adolescent from conventional social norms that are antithetical to delinquency. These results are likely because, in general, friends encourage adolescents to become independent of the family and other conventional institutions (Parks & Floyd 1996) Thus, adolescent friendship attitude s a threat to socially desirable social ascendency (Windle, 1992). This expectation deviates from strain theory and social learning theory or differential association theory. According to strain theory, friendship can alleviate strain, thereby reducing the adolescent's involvement in delinquency as a reaction to that strain (Schuster et al., 1990) Friendship is particularly salutary for the adolescent because it is critically extremityed during this period (Poulin et al., 1999) According to social learning or differential association theory, association with deviant friends is a cause of delinquency, and association with prosocial friends facilitates healthy increase (Garnier & Stein, 2002; Power & Khmelkov 1999) Social learning theory surmises that the individual needs to learn skills and values, and to gain the approval of others in order to engage in various activities. by means of the same token, adolescents ne to learn from their delinquent friends by what means to commit delinquent acts and from their prosocial friends to what degree to engage in community service. Friendship, according to social learning theory, is les important than the nature of the friends, whether they are delinquent or prosocial.