Each year, many teen-agers run away from home. What do you think are the chief causes?

Each year many teenagers run away from home. Teenagers run away from home mainly because of strict parents, friends who are bad influences, and drugs.
One of the chief causes for runaway teens is because their parents are too strict. Often parents try to keep their teenagers away from bad influences by keeping them on a leash. When a child becomes a teenager, there are certain things they should be allowed to do by their selves; however many parents try to keep their children contained so that they don't have the opportunities to mess up. This is a big mistake. Parents who do this to their children normally regret it in the long run because teenagers who aren't able to explore at a young age and learn right from wrong then, usually go wild after they get old enough to leave. When teenagers are given a little freedom, they normally are straightened out by the time they get old enough to go out on their own.
Many teenagers this day in time will do almost anything to fit in with the cool crowd. This is another reason teenagers run away from home. If they are hanging with bad influences, their parents may put them on restriction or try to keep them away from that certain crowd if they get in trouble. Many teenagers reject punishment and have the bad influences to talk them in to running away from home.
The last cause may be drugs. Many teenagers at the age of about fourteen and fifteen began exploring with different drugs if it is available. Many try it once and never again, while others are weak minded and begin to take advantage of them, and before you know it they have a drug problem. Now the drug problem is quite so bad until the parents begin noticing a change and confront them with it, normally the teenager is still in denial or to afraid to ask for help, so they runaway.
There are probably many other reasons why teens runaway, however these are the main causes in my opinion. A word to the wise if you are a parent, do not try to keep your teenagers sheltered, you will only hurt them in the long run.