«Stì, I am a hikikomori». 2.1% of the young people contacted by first Italian research on the subject he answers like this. That is, it attributes to itself the characteristics of the “social retreat“. Projecting the data on the student population 15-19 year olds, we are talking about 54,000 students. Young or very young who they stop leaving the houseto attend school and friends, to lock oneself in one’s rooms and limit relations with the outside world to a minimum, maintaining contact mainly through the Internet.
Hikikomori alarm: 54,000 young Italians are “withdrawn”.
The phenomenon born in Japan but now widespread throughout the world was the subject of an Italian study for the first time, Lives apartsponsored by Abel group in collaboration with theRoad Universityand made byInstitute of Clinical Physiology of the National Research Council (CNR). Objective, to define a first reliable quantitative estimate. The research started from the study ESPAD®Italia (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, conducted annually by the Cnr-Ifc with respect to the consumption of psychoactive substances), involving a sample of over 12,000 students representative of the Italian student population aged between 15 and 19. The boys were interviewed through a specific set of questions aimed at intercepting both the behaviors and their perceived causes: the results are based on the self-assessment of the participants themselves.
Stop leaving the house. Even for six months
The withdrawal periods are more than significant for 18.7% of the interviewees, and of course the months of the lockdown are excluded: «Even 8.2% did not go out for a while from 1 to 6 months and beyond. The projections tell us about 1.7% of the total students (44,000 young people nationwide) who can be defined as Hikikomori, while 2.6% (67,000 young people) would be at serious risk of becoming one”, explains Sabrina Molinaro, CnrIfc researcher. The age that is most at risk for choosing to retire is between 15 and 17, but already in middle school the causes of future isolation are incubated.
Male and female hikikomori, the differences
Males are the majority among the effective withdrawals, but females are more easily given the definition of Hikikomori. Gender differences also emerge with respect to the use of time: girls are more inclined to sleep, eating, reading and watching TVwhile the boys are dedicated to gaming online.
What are the possible explanations for these numerical differences? They try to offer them Leopolodo Grosso (Gruppo Abele Onlus) and Sonia Cerrai (Cnr-Ifc9) in the guide to reading data. «They are remote causes, due to socio-cultural backgrounds that concern them differential education between male and female which favors a domestic role for women». But also contingent, and they concern the female defensive reactive modalities to painful episodes, such as sentimental ruptures, failure to achieve the intended goal. “In males, who are traditionally more projected on the outside world, the harsher social withdrawal appears instead as a consequence of amore tormented existential elaboration which leads to a bankruptcy balance of one’s life”.
The causes: more than bullying, self-evaluation
Among the causes of isolation, the sense of inadequacy compared to peers. More than bullying, the problem is a widespread fatigue in relationships with peers, characterized by frustration and self-evaluation.
Parents and teachers? No questions are asked
Sonia Cerrai adds: «Another surprising figure concerns the reaction of families: more than one interviewee out of 4, among those who define themselves withdrawn, in fact declares that the parents would have accepted it seemingly without question. The figure is similar when it comes to teachers. Always in the eyes of the students, it emerges that almost a third of the teachers do not seem to notice the problem: they are not worried about it (27%) or think that the absence is due to illness (23.1%). Teachers’ concern becomes greater if the absence extends beyond three months. Of the school principals who provided information on the phenomenon, 82% report the presence of at least one “missing” pupil within their school, and 28.7% of at least one student with social withdrawal certification.
Hikikomori, the birth of the phenomenon, in Japan
The word hikikomori was coined by a Japanese psychiatrist. Tamaki Saito, 25 years ago: he chose it to describe a phenomenon observed in some patients, people who confined themselves in their homes for at least 6 months. The onset of the phenomenon occurred within the second half of the third decade of life (25-30 years) and the isolation was not directly attributable to other psychiatric disorders. The reference syndrome was, according to the psychiatrist, the apathy. A systematic review of specific studies conducted in 2015 consider the phenomenon prevalent in Japan, Hong Kong and Korea: it affects between 1.2-1.9-2.3% of the population.
In Italy, estimates and projects
The National AssociationHikikomori Italy” today estimates the overall phenomenon around 100,000 people distributed throughout the national territory. Based on research conducted on 288 parents who are members of the Association, the socially withdrawn child is predominantly male (87%), with an average age around 20 years and a retirement period of 3 years, with age of onset around 15 years.
The data that emerges must stimulate in-depth reflection, the Abele Group will also lead through a seminar for operators, educators and teachers (in Turin on May 5th). In the meantime, the experimental educational intervention of the project, which began in 2020, continues Nine ¾ for the educational support of children in situations of social withdrawal. Organized with about forty boys and girls whose families could not find an answer to the closure and isolation of their children.
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