Consultations for Hikikomori among Parents of Junior High School Students

Aims: Hikikomori is commonly translated as "acute social withdrawal". It is estimated that there are 696,000 individuals with hikikomori in Japan. Although there is no common therapy to resolve the problem of hikikomori, early intervention is required because it can lead to some forms of mental illness. In the present study, we investigated consultation type and timing of parents toward children in junior high school with hikikomori.

Methods: The study participants included 376 parents of children in junior high school who were registered to an internet research company. They answered the following three categories of questions on the internet website: Demographic characteristics, types of consultation when their child have signs of hikikomori, and timing of consultation when their child have signs of hikikomori. Chi-squared test was used to compare the relationship between the presence of help-seeking behavior and the demographic characteristics. Bonferroni multiple comparison test was used to assess differences in rates between groups of demographic characteristics.

Results: Consultation with close friends and relatives was the most frequent (54.0%) type of consultation, and medical consultation was the second most frequent (45.5%). Among the choices of medical consultation, the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine was the most frequent answer (37.8%). Most participants (80.9%) answered that they seek medical help within 1 week or 1 month from the onset of hikikomori. In contrast, there were several (14.6%) participants who seek medical help after 1 year, and those who do not seek any help (4.5%). We also found that fathers were less likely to seek medical help than mothers.

Conclusion: Medical help was the third most common type of consultation reported by participants. It is important to promote help-seeking behavior for mental health care among fathers of children with hikikomori.