Relationship of Biological and Environmental Factors with Social Isolation Using Hikki and Dead Inside as Examples

Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of a set of factors leading to voluntary self-isolation of young people in Russia. A number of foreign studies have documented voluntary withdrawal from social life and the desire for complete social isolation among young people. This phenomenon was first described in Japan and labeled as “hikikomori”. Many of the hikikomori did not have mental disorders to explain their reclusiveness, and therefore a comprehensive biopsychosocial model of the formation of such maladaptive behavior was proposed.

Objective. To test the causal relationship between social exclusion, nervous system characteristics, and attachment type in members of the hikki and dead inside subcultures.

Materials and Methods. Sixty-eight people (48 women and 20 men) participated in the study. Of them, the conditional norm was 36 people, 20 were dead inside, and 12 were hikkas. To assess the peculiarities of the nervous system we used express-diagnostics of the nervous system types on the basis of J. Streliau’s method of temperament diagnostics; to study the attachment types we used the method “Self-assessment of the generalized type of attachment” adapted by T. V. Kazantseva; to study child-parent relations we used the author’s questionnaire. Correlation and regression analysis were used as methods of statistical data processing.

Results. The study confirmed the biopsychosocial model of social isolation, which is the result of nervous system features interrelated with the formation of relationships with parents and attachment type, which in turn is related to the formation of relationships with peers.

Discussion. According to the results of the study, it was found that the predictors of social reclusiveness of hikikomori are increased excitability of the nervous system, which turns any social contacts into painful ones, while the representatives of dead inside, on the contrary, experience too weak reactions to external and internal stimuli, which also affects social adaptation.

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