ArticleClinical child and family psychology review2023
Contemporary Hermits: A Developmental Psychopathology Account of Extreme Social Withdrawal (Hikikomori) in Young People.
Article in Clinical child and family psychology review, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- The rise of hikikomori research: a bibliometric analysis of an emerging global phenomenon.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- The Joy and the Pain of Being Alone: Managing the Solitude-Loneliness (SOLO) Paradox in People High on the Autism Spectrum.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Review
- Failure to Launch (FTL): A Narrative Review and Call for Research.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Review
- Hikikomori as a culturally situated expression of neurodivergence: A two-stage international analysis.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2026Article
- Autism and Hikikomori Risk: A Link Beyond Other Psychopathologies, and Their Relationship to Loneliness and Solitude.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Using difficulty in going out and social participation to assess for risk of hikikomori: nationally representative data from the European health interview survey.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- On Your Own: An Explorative Study on the Psychopathological and Psychosocial Correlates of Hikikomori Symptoms in Dutch Adolescents and Young Adults.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
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- Predominant affective temperaments in depressive patients with severe social withdrawal.Annals of general psychiatry · 2024Article
- Social Withdrawal in Preschool Age: A Clinical Case in Intensive Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The relationship between addiction and hikikomori tendencies: a case-control study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although it is widely accepted that human beings have an ingrained 'need to belong,' there seem to be a substantial subset of young people who seclude themselves for most of the time at home and no longer engage in education or work, ultimately withdrawing from participation in society. In Japan, this phenomenon has been labeled as 'hikikomori,' but given its global presence it may be preferable to use the term 'extreme social withdrawal' (ESW). In this qualitative review, we provide a description and definition of ESW, provide figures on its prevalence, and discuss a number of associated concepts, including loneliness and "aloneliness," school absenteeism and dropout, the 'new' developmental stage of adultolescence, and the labor force categories of freeter ('freelance arbeiter') and NEET (a young person not in employment, education, or training). The core of the paper is focused on the origins of ESW in young people and provides a narrative overview of relevant etiological factors, such as aberrant brain processes, unfavorable temperament, psychiatric conditions, adverse family processes including detrimental parenting, negative peer experiences, societal pressures, and excessive internet and digital media use, which are all placed within a comprehensive developmental psychopathology framework. We will close with a discussion of possible interventions for young people with ESW and formulate a guideline that describes (the temporal order of) various components that need to be included in such a treatment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.