Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2021, 9, 254-270 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jss ISSN Online: 2327-5960 ISSN Print: 2327-5952 DOI: 10.4236/jss.2021.99019 Sep. 14, 2021 254 Open Journal of Social Sciences Runaway Girls and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: A Qualitative Interpretative Meta-Synthesis Marcus Crawford Department of Social Work Education, California State University, Fresno, USA Abstract Runaway youth are at heightened risk for violence, substance use, suicide, and other high risk concerns. Qualitative studies have examined youth choices to leave home, involvement living on the streets, and lived experiences as stigma- tized youth; however, findings from these various studies have never been ana- lyzed together into a single synthesis of information. The purpose of this ar- ticle is to synthesize the qualitative data using Qualitative Interpretative Me- ta-Synthesis. The researcher completed a systematic search to locate studies focused on girls who were or had been runaways, extracting themes from 10 articles to create new overarching themes that encompassed each of the articles. Results showed six new overarching themes: power/control, stigma, physical needs, safety, belonging, and acceptance. The themes of physical needs, safety, belonging, and acceptance are discussed using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pa- radigm. Together, the themes are constructed to discuss how helping profes- sionals can be better prepared to help meet the myriad needs of runaway girls by utilizing the hierarchy of needs presented by Maslow. This research article provides a unique insight into working with a vulnerable population by weav- ing together the experiences and words of the individuals whose real-life narra- tives have shaped the discussion. Keywords Runaway, Maslow, Helping Professionals, At-Risk Youth 1. Introduction Helping professionals are often involved in the lives of young people who have run away from home (Kurtz, Lindsey, Jarvis, & Nackrud, 2000; Peled & Komem, 2020). In looking for research to inform practice, one finds that numerous qua- How to cite this paper: Crawford, M. (2021). Runaway Girls and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: A Qualitative Interpretative Meta-Syn- thesis. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 9, 254- 270. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2021.99019 Received: August 12, 2021 Accepted: September 11, 2021 Published: September 14, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access