A study of family functioning in Hikikomori (Social withdrawal)

Hikikomori (Social withdrawal) has recently been examined as a problem facing Japanese society. Despite the issuance of guidelines by the Japanese government, the creation of parent groups and the availability of support from various government agencies and private organizations, no countermeasure policy has been established. Research on Hikikomori as a problem for the entire family and analysis of functioning in cases of Hikikomori has not been carried out.

Hikikomori is seen in the same home and two or more cases are often seen. Then, it thought whether having related to the family function.

This study is to find the Hikikomori family's characteristic and make available the clue of the method to it.

The present study examines family functioning associated with cases of Hikikomori by assessing 16 families with social withdrawal, 15 families with autism, and 25 control families using the Family Assessment Device (FAD). The seven subcategories of the FAD [Problem Solving (PS), Communication (CM), Roles (RL), Affective Responsiveness (AR), Affective Involvement (AI), Behavior Control (BC) and General Functioning (GF)] were analyzed by a multiple comparison test. Statistical significance was established at p<0.01 or p<0.05.

Results demonstrated that families with Hikikomori have higher CM, AR and GF scores than families with autism, and higher PS, CM and GF scores than control families. Furthermore, PS scores for fathers with a family member with Hikikomori scored higher than the control fathers. The PS, CM and GF scored for mothers with a family member with Hikikomori were higher than those of the control mothers, and than mothers with a family member with autism. Also, the AR scores for mothers with a family member with Hikikomori were found to be higher than those of the control mothers. No marked differences were observed between the control and autism groups in any of the scores for the families, fathers, or mothers.

While measures and social support are available for autism, the lack of clarification regarding the cause and measurement of Hikikomori appears to have contributed to the observed differences in FAD scores.

Mother feels that the family function is the worst in the family, because there are a lot of items with a significant difference of the FAD score.Therefore, appealing to and mother of the solution of "Hikikomori" obtained the suggestion of effective.