The (growing) army of Hikikomori in Italy: CNR data and Italian research

By Cristiano Antonino On Mar 21, 2023

There are over 50,000 Hikikomori in Italy. What drives these young people to withdraw from society? And how can they be helped? CNR data and expert opinion

We have already talked about the Hikikomori in connection with the new forms of youth distress: they are young people, often very young, who stop leaving home, going to school and friends.

They decide to shut themselves up in their rooms, limiting their relationships with their families to a minimum and maintaining contact with the world mainly through the web.

A web that psychologists are increasingly dealing with, and you can find numerous insights into it at the end.

According to a recent study conducted by the CNR, together with Gruppo Abele, it is estimated that there may be around 50,000 Hikikomori in Italy.

Who are the young people who decide to isolate themselves and why do they decide to do so? What strategies can we implement to help them?

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HIKIKOMORI, THE RESEARCH

The need to understand the extent of the phenomenon led Gruppo Abele to collect reliable data in order to define an initial quantitative estimate of voluntary isolation in the adolescent population.

To do this, it decided to rely on the ESPAD®Italia (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) study, conducted annually by the CNR-Ifc with regard to the consumption of psychoactive substances among young people, involving a sample of over 12,000 students representative of the Italian student population between the ages of 15 and 19.

WHAT EMERGED?

Young people were interviewed through a special set of questions aimed at intercepting both behaviour and perceived causes. The results were based on the participants’ own self-assessment.

What emerged? 2.1% of the sample attributed the definition of Hikikomori to themselves.

Projecting the data onto the 15-19 year old student population nationwide, it can therefore be estimated that around 54,000 Italian high school students identify themselves as being in a situation of social withdrawal.

This figure appears to be confirmed by the answers on actual withdrawal periods: 18.7% of the interviewees state, in fact, that they have not been out for a significant time, excluding lockdown periods, and of these 8.2% have not been out for a time of 1 to 6 months or more. In this area are both the most serious situations (more than 6 months of lockdown) and those with the highest risk (3 to 6 months).

Projections tell us that about 1.7% of the total number of students (44,000 young people nationwide) can be defined as Hikikomori, while 2.6% (67,000 young people) would be at serious risk of becoming Hikikomori.

THOSE MOST AT RISK OF HIKIKOMORI

The age that proves to be most at risk for choosing social withdrawal is between 15 and 17 years of age, with the causes of self-withdrawal behaviour incubating as early as the middle school period.

Often these are boys who have already shown fragility, for instance having used psychotropic drugs with and without a prescription.

Gender differences are revealed in the perception of withdrawal: males are in the majority among actual retreatants, but females are more likely to attribute themselves as Hikikomori.

With regard to time use, there are important differences, with girls being more inclined to sleep, reading and TV, and boys to online gaming.

HIKIKOMORI: COVID’S FAULT?

During the lockdown we were all forced into social withdrawal so, once the pandemic had passed, it would have been plausible to expect a decrease in the phenomenon, but this was not the case as for many boys, forced withdrawal paradoxically encouraged voluntary withdrawal.

The study began in 2021, but the figure, based on the first surveys for 2022, seems not only to be maintained but to be increasing slightly with 2.2% of boys describing themselves as hikikomori.

This does not appear to be a phenomenon destined to go away at all, and the causes lie beyond the covid.

Among the causes of isolation, a sense of inadequacy in relation to peers, characterised by frustration and self-evaluation, plays a major role.

Often, boys feel undeserving and not up to par because of the way their body looks, their character, their shyness, their behaviour or the way they dress.

To these elements they attribute the cause of non-acceptance which, when it becomes too unbearable, culminates in social withdrawal.

Having been bullied, contrary to popular belief, is not among the most frequent and decisive reasons for choice.

HIKIKOMORI, A GROWING PHENOMENON

Initially attributed only to Japan, a country culturally distant from us, the problem of the Hikikomori, when it appeared in the West it was considered a psycho-pathological issue.

With the increase in numbers even in Italy we are finally becoming aware of an emerging phenomenon with relevant characteristics that can no longer be ignored.

Especially by educational institutions, which, as educational bodies, are also called upon to deal with a new youth problem.

Currently, the phenomenon is more and more visible, but there is no national institutional awareness for taking on the problem at both a preventive and an aid level.

The research effort is aimed precisely at giving a push in this direction.

WHAT HAS CHANGED COMPARED TO THE PAST?

Why was it that until some twenty years ago it was an exception to hear about socially withdrawn young people and now there are such high numbers? What has changed?

Up until thirty years ago, youth discomfort took other paths, such as intravenous heroin addiction, and above all did not have to reckon with the very demanding demands of the ‘society of appearance and narcissism’ as is the case in the new millennium.

Today, aesthetic and performance values become diriment in defining the value of a young person, from which his or her level of social acceptance descends.

Young people have totally absorbed this type of culture, they have internalised its criteria and values, and they are very sensitive to it: when, after strenuously fighting for their acceptance, they can no longer withstand a confrontation that is always losing in their eyes, they give up and withdraw.

Once this phenomenon has been detected, what can we do to help these children?

First of all, we must acknowledge the situation, without ignoring it.

The report shows that more than 1 in 4 of those who describe themselves as withdrawn say that their parents would have accepted it apparently without question.

The figure is similar when it comes to teachers.

Moreover, we should return to an education and a relationship with peers that is not heterodetermined, i.e. always controlled by others.

Nowadays, children only meet and interface with each other during activities organised by the school or sports clubs.

The only ‘place’ where they are masters of their own time and can relate to peers on their own without control is the web.

For this reason, it would be interesting to understand whether the hikikomori risk is lower in rural areas where the freedom of the children and the possibility of being among peers without controls is certainly greater.

HIKIKOMORI, IS THERE A NEED FOR CERTIFICATION?

Given the relevance of the data that emerged from the study, it would be important for operational decisions to be derived from it that would be useful for the management and protection of the phenomenon that should be brought to national and ministerial attention.

It would be important to follow the example of some schools that have equipped secluded rooms to allow children in difficulty not to have direct confrontation with their classmates or that allow teachers to go home or continue with online teaching.

In this way, the rigid criterion of school attendance as a prerequisite for final assessment is dispensed with.

The relaxation of attendance, by calculating it in other ways that are not solely identified with classroom presence, becomes of paramount importance to intervene early when social withdrawal is only a temptation or onset.

When it is not a definitive choice, it is still possible to intervene, if the appropriate tools are available.

However, in order to prevent the refusal to go to school being mistaken for dropping out, it would be important for local health authorities to issue certificates attesting social withdrawal exempting from the required school attendance and allowing for individualisation, with the possibility of studying at home.

Some local health authorities, through their neuropsychiatry or psychology services, are already active in this regard, but the situation is extremely uneven throughout the country.

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