Introduction
Previously, we conducted a statistical case-control study of adolescent
Hikikomori
patients in Japan using the Parental Assessment of Psychological, Behavioral and Environment Scales. ...That study did not reveal any pathologies specific to
Hikikomori
patients. On the other hand, environmental factors such as “lack of communication between parents” and “overuse of the Internet” were shown to be significant predictors of
Hikikomori
severity.
Objectives
In this study, using the same methodology as our previous study in Japan, we conducted a case-control study in France. The following questions were examined : (1) whether the pathology of H
ikikomori
patients in Japan and France is the same, and (2) whether the environmental factors associated with the severity of H
ikikomori
are the same in Japan and France.
Methods
Using CBCL and our original scales, we descriptive-statistically compared clinical and subclinical psycho-behavioral characteristics of adolescent
Hikikomori
patients and a control group. In addition, environmental factors that make
Hikikomori
more severe were clarified by multiple regression analysis.
Results
The results showed that there was no difference in the pathology of
Hikikomori
between Japan and France. On the other hand, the statistical predictors of
Hikikomori
severity were “lack of communication between parents and children” and “Lack of communication with the community,” which differed from those in Japan.
Conclusions
Although it is safe to assume that Japanese and French
Hikikomori’
s pathology is generally the same, different strategies may be needed to prevent the onset of
Hikikomori
and to stop it from becoming severe.
Disclosure
No significant relationships.
Introduction
Around 2010, the number of hikikomori cases increased rapidly. Hikikomori is a global problem that characterizes the current era, and has become an increasingly deep-rooted social issue ...that affects the younger generation, especially during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In our previous comparative study of adolescent hikikomori between Japan and France (Hamasaki et al. BMC Psychiatry 2022; 22, 477), we investigated its psychopathology, including potential cultural influencing factors. The study showed no difference in terms of psycho-behavioral characteristics of hikikomori between Japan and France. However, the sociocultural factors that make hikikomori more severe differed between the two countries, i.e., in Japan: lack of communication between parents, in France: lack of communication between the family and the community.
Objectives
Since these differences in sociocultural factors are closely related to the social context in which the mothers were placed, the factors in terms of maternal gender issues were examined, along with reviewing previous studies.
Methods
Statistical data from the “Global Gender Gap Report 2022” of the World Economic Forum, the “Towards real gender equality 2021” of the Ministry of Gender Equality, Diversity, and Equal Opportunities of France, the “Women and Men in Japan 2020” of the Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, and other sources were evaluated. Further, previous literature on the family environmental factors of hikikomori were reviewed.
Results
An absent father, a subsequent mother-child closeness and over-interference, and the inhibition of children’s independence, have been repeatedly mentioned in studies as factors leading to hikikomori. The time spent on housework and childcare by Japanese men is at the lowest level globally (Japan’s gender gap index ranks 116
th
out of 146 countries, the lowest among the seven major G7 nations). In Japan, where generally little cooperation exists between parents, particularly in those families where communication between parents is self-rated as relatively poor, the above factors may surpass the threshold for triggering hikikomori. In France (ranked 15
th
in gender gap index), the isolation of mothers and children from society is an important factor associated with hikikomori. Adequate social participation of the mother may be a protective factor against hikikomori.
Conclusions
Gender gap-related issues among mothers may be involved in the root of the hikikomori problem. Hikikomori has emerged from various socio-familial factors. Further studies are warranted to determine the causal relationships of these factors with the onset and severity of hikikomori.
Disclosure of Interest
None Declared
La littérature montre que de nombreux enfants et adolescents confrontés au cancer d’un proche apportent une aide significative et régulière. Ces jeunes sont nommés jeunes aidants (JA). Cette ...situation a des conséquences importantes sur le bien-être et la qualité de vie de ces jeunes. Pourtant, les JA sont aujourd’hui peu identifiés et reconnus en France, et il existe peu de dispositifs pour les soutenir. Cet article se propose d’exposer la place des JA dans le cancer dans notre société, leurs besoins et les dispositifs d’accompagnement pouvant y répondre.
Studies showed that many children and adolescents who face a relative’s cancer provide regular and significant support. These youth are known as Young Carers (YC). This situation has many consequences on their wellbeing and quality of life. However, these youth are currently unknown and unrecognized in France, and few measures to help them exist to date. This study aims to investigate the place of young carers in the cancer field in French society, highlight their needs, and identify the current support systems that can respond to their difficulties.
Our two objectives were: (1) to investigate the relationship between binge eating disorder, dimensions of personality (according to the Big Five model of Costa and McCrae) and those of emotionality ...in the "tripartite" model of emotions of Watson and Clark; (2) to evaluate the correspondence between the Binge Eating Scale (BES) and the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI-2) scores.
Four self-administered questionnaires were completed on a shared doc website: the EDI-2, the BES, the BFI-Fr (Big Five Inventory-French version) and the EPN-31 (Positive and Negative Emotionality Scale). The analyses were conducted in a sample of 101 participants (36 men and 65 women), aged 20-59 years (mean age=35.28±9.76) from the general population.
We found that 11% of the participants had moderate to severe binge eating disorder. Among them, nearly 4% were overweight and 4% were obese. The correlations analyses indicated that binge eating disorder was associated with two dimensions of personality, the neuroticism (P=0.001) and the consciousness (P=0.010), and with the emotions of joy (P=0.008), tenderness (P=0.036), fear (P=0.011), shame (P<0.001) and sadness (P=0.009). From a comparative perspective, participants with binge eating disorder get higher scores on EDI-2 subscales: search for thinness (P=0.001), bulimia (P<0.001), dissatisfaction with the body (P<0.001) and interceptive awareness (P<0.001).
These results suggest that binge eating disorder is associated with negative affectivity both as a personality dimension and as an emotional feeling. The patterns of associations, observed with the EDI scale, seem to confirm the good convergent validity of the Binge Eating Scale. Thus, like other eating disorders, emotional functioning should be a prime target for prevention and treatment.
Self-esteem, coping strategies and perceived social support play a role in the adaptive functioning of the human being: they allow the adjustment of the subject to his/her environment. These ...dimensions could be protective factors regarding multiple risks associated with adolescent development, and particularly substance use. Thus our objective was twofold: to evaluate self-esteem, coping strategies and perceived social support in adolescents and young adults with a cannabis dependence in comparison with subjects from the general population; to establish the correspondence between these psychological dimensions and the patients' substance use pattern.
Data from 43 young patients (36 males; mean age=19.6±3), consulting for their cannabis dependence, and 50 young adults from the general population (39 males; mean age=19.7±3.4) were included. Participants completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory, the Social Self-Esteem Inventory of Lawson, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation of Endler & Parker, and the Perceived Social Support Questionnaire of Sarason. The MINI was administered to evaluate cannabis abuse or dependence; a semi-structured clinical interview was given to determine psychoactive substance use.
Between-group comparisons (two independent sample t-tests) showed that the patients had significantly lower scores on global (P=0.002) and social (P=0.035) self-esteem, task-oriented coping (P<0.001) and both availability and satisfaction regarding perceived social support (respectively P=0.029 and P<0.001). Conversely, patients had significantly higher scores on emotion-focused coping subscale (P=0.003). Logistic regressions showed that the satisfaction regarding social support and task-oriented coping scores were the more powerful to distinguish the patients from the controls (respectively β=1.16, P=0.043 and β=1.06, P=0.015). Unvaried linear regression analyses revealed a negative association between the age of first cannabis use and the avoidant-social coping score (P=0.025), and positive associations between the length of daily cannabis use and emotion-focused coping score (P=0.028), and frequency of cannabis use and global self-esteem scores (P=0.028). Moreover, polysubstance misuse is associated with low distraction-avoidant coping scores. No association was found between clinical scores and tobacco and alcohol uses variables.
These results suggest that cannabis dependent patients may present a lack in individual and interpersonal resources. This clinical study underscores the potential contribution of maladaptive coping to the development or maintenance of substance use in young adulthood.
Introduction Psychological processes play a mediating role in the development of psycho-pathological disorders depending on the Kinderman's model. Excessive use of emotional avoidance becomes, ...following the model of Barlow and Allen, the booster of emotional distress at long term. Dysfunctional meta-cognitive processes in turn influence the inadequate interpretations of life experiences. Objective To improve identification, expression and emotional management in patients with schizophrenia (PWS) and patients with bipolar disorder (PWBD). Aims Introduction of exposition for the emotional body's sensations. This work on emotional awareness by images and sounds prepare to role-playing and to exposure in real life. Methods Groups of psychotherapy for adults PWS and PWBD was implemented. The techniques used are those of cognitive behavioral therapy CBT (Beck) and emotional therapies (Barlow): columns Beck tailored, role-playing, psycho-emotional and breathing. Four groups of four patients participated in six therapy sessions. Results An increase in emotional flexibility is observed two weeks after the group work (Wilcoxon P = 0.025). Work on emotional identification facilitates the relaxation of the avoidance process while promoting social skills. The new format includes nine sessions three additional sessions on the emotional body sensations. Meta-cognitive work on the interpretation of the delusional thinking has been inserted. Conclusion The experience of this pilot study provides encouraging results. The transdiagnostic approach referring to the alterations of this common psychological process finds use with PWS and PWBD.
L’intérêt porté à la qualité de l’alimentation est de plus en plus répandu dans la société, il peut cependant devenir pathologique avec l’installation d’obsessions alimentaires. Le néologisme ...orthorexie nerveuse permet de décrire ce rapport obsessionnel à l’alimentation. Bien que l’orthorexie nerveuse soit associée à une altération du fonctionnement de l’individu qui en est atteint, elle ne renvoie pas, aujourd’hui, à un diagnostic psychiatrique car elle reste mal comprise. Les objectifs principaux de cette revue critique de la littérature sont de (1) présenter l’orthorexie nerveuse de sa conceptualisation initiale à sa compréhension actuelle au regard des avancées scientifiques, (2) distinguer l’orthorexie nerveuse de l’anorexie mentale et (3) mettre en évidence l’émergence de l’intérêt croissant, et parfois pathologique, porté à l’alimentation saine au regard de l’évolution sociétale. Pour répondre à ces objectifs, une analyse de la littérature sur l’orthorexie et sur l’alimentation saine a été réalisée et restituée.
In recent years, the interest in the quality of food is getting increasingly widespread in our society. From now on, consumers are paying more attention to food components and are trying to adopt a more environmentally friendly by consuming, for example, products from short circuits. However, this attention to the quality of food can be pathological. The neologism orthorexia nervosa, invented in 1997, describes this obsessive relationship with food. People with orthorexia develop obsessions related to food quality and may develop eating rituals in order to stay “healthy”. Orthorexia nervosa is not yet considered a psychiatric disorder due to a lack of consensus on its definition, but it is associated with impaired somatic, social, professional and/or academic functioning. Indeed, although orthorexia nervosa has been the subject of increasing scientific interest, it remains poorly understood because the main tools used to assess it offer a partial measure of the concept. For example, the “ORTHO” self-questionnaire, which is the most widely used in the scientific literature, assesses an interest in healthy eating rather than psychopathological obsessions. The current data and knowledge on orthorexia nervosa are therefore uncertain, making it difficult to understand this concept. In order to better understand the issues at stake in the assessment of orthorexia nervosa, a critical reading of these tools is proposed in this article. Moreover, a new conceptualization of orthorexia emerged a few years ago. It offers a better understanding of this concept with a healthy side (i.e., healthy orthorexia) and a pathological side (i.e., orthorexia nervosa). In an attempt to clarify the knowledge on orthorexia, the main objective of this critical review of the literature is to present orthorexia nervosa according to its initial conceptualization and its current understanding in accordance with scientific advances. The second objective is to distinguish orthorexia nervosa from anorexia nervosa. The third objective is to highlight the emergence of a growing, and sometimes pathological, interest in healthy eating within the context of societal development. To achieve these objectives, a review of the literature on orthorexia and healthy eating was conducted.
L’objectif de l’étude est de mettre en évidence l’existence d’un lien entre alimentation et identité. Les participants ont été recrutés par le biais de groupes Facebook portant sur le végétarisme, ...végétalisme et véganisme, une fois l’accord des administrateurs obtenu. Six entretiens ont été réalisés, retranscrits et analysés via le logiciel TROPES. L’usage majeur des verbes d’état et d’identité (être, devenir, « je ») ainsi que du pronom personnel « on », renvoie à une construction identitaire à la fois individuelle et collective autour de l’alimentation. Et, bien que la motivation principalement rapportée soit éthique, les participants ont spontanément abordé la question du poids et du corps. Quelle que soit l’histoire alimentaire des participants, des identifications aux troubles liés à l’image corporelle ou aux catégories de poids ont précédé l’identification à une alimentation spécifique. Or, l’adoption du végétarisme (au sens large) semble associée à une amélioration de l’estime de soi et de la perception de soi.
These last years have been marked by an evolution as to how people feed themselves, highlighting a growing interest for vegetarian food. Vegetarianism at large refers to several types of food that are characterized by the partial or total exclusion of animal foods. This study aims at relating various elements associated to vegetarianism, such as eating motives, behaviors, self-perception and others’ perception, in relation with the notion of identity.
Participants were recruited via vegetarian and vegan (for food and for lifestyle) groups on Facebook, once their agreement was obtained. Six interviews were conducted by a clinical psychologist around the notion of being and identity related to food, as well as the food history of the individual and his/her family. The use of retrospective investigation makes possible to establish a continuity between the past and the current eating behavior. These interviews, once manually transcribed, were the subject of a complex semantic analysis via TROPES software (version 8.4).
The results showed a major use of state's and identity's verbs (being, becoming, “I”) and the personal pronoun “we”, referring to a construction of both individual and collective identity around the diet. The commitment to vegetarian/vegan diet has been primarily motivated by ethical concern. And, positive feelings have emerged following the adoption of this type of diet, such as pride, inner purity and a sense of being healthy and holy. Despite the fact that their diet is ethically focused, participants spontaneously addressed the issue of weight and body image.
Whatever the food's history of participants, identifications to disorders related to body image or identifications to weight categories have preceded the identification to a specific diet. And the following of a vegetarian/vegan diet appears at the base of positive feelings toward oneself and a better self-esteem. So, we can assume that adopting a vegetarian/vegan diet could improve self-perception. Otherwise, the ethical choice mentioned by the participants, may be an acceptable sociable justification to control more or less the fate of their body (inside and outside). More research is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms of vegetarian/vegan diet, to explore the personality profiles of individuals and their relation to the body.
L’estime de soi, le soutien social perçu et les stratégies de coping jouent un rôle adaptatif majeur dans le fonctionnement psychologique, en permettant l’ajustement de l’individu à l’environnement. ...L’adolescence est une phase du développement humain, initiée physiologiquement par la survenue de la puberté, qui s’accompagne de multiples remaniements tant sur les plans physique, psychologique que social. Ces bouleversements majeurs font de l’adolescence une période à haut risque pour l’émergence de comportements potentiellement dommageables, tels que les usages de produits psychoactifs. Au regard de ces risques, des dimensions telles que l’estime de soi, le soutien social perçu et les stratégies de coping, pourraient donc être considérées comme des facteurs de protection. Dans cet article de revue de la littérature, l’estime de soi, le soutien social perçu et les stratégies de coping font successivement l’objet d’une présentation théorique et développementale, axée sur l’adolescence. Les implications de ces dimensions dans le fonctionnement psychologique sont également évoquées, et l’accent est porté sur les études empiriques ayant investigués les liens entre ces aspects fondamentaux du fonctionnement et les usages de produits psychoactifs à l’adolescence. Ce travail de revue a permis de souligner à quel point les dimensions psychologiques telles que l’estime de soi, les stratégies de coping et soutien social perçu sont centrales pour la définition du fonctionnement d’un individu. Leur altération est associée à de nombreux dysfonctionnements, particulièrement en ce qui concerne la régulation émotionnelle, la gestion des relations interpersonnelles mais également l’usage de produits psychoactifs. Malgré des résultats hétérogènes et des conclusions parfois toujours en débat, ce constat en fait des facteurs clés, à la fois en termes de prévention, mais également de ciblage du choix des programmes d’interventions thérapeutiques.
Self-esteem, coping strategies and perceived social support play a role in the adaptive functioning of human being: they allow the adjustment of the subject to his/her environment. These dimensions could be protective factors regarding multiple risks associated with adolescent development, and particularly substance use. Thus the objective of this review was threefold: to expose a definition of self-esteem, perceived social support and coping strategies; to present the impact of each of these psychological dimensions on the adolescent's functioning; to synthesize the results of empirical studies on the correspondence between these psychological dimensions and substance use, with a specific emphasize on adolescence. The explicative models concerning these various results are exposed and discussed. A lack of individual and interpersonal resources may appear during adolescence and early adulthood and may contribute to the development or maintenance of substance use during this period of development. However, causal explanations are still unclear for numerous associations. In line with the limits that have been discussed in the new field of developmental neurosciences, future studies investigating the implication of self-esteem, coping strategies and perceived social support in substance abuse should take into account the level of pubertal development and gender effect.
Les réseaux sociaux (RS) permettent d’exposer toutes sortes de contenus, notamment à propos de soi.
L’objectif de cette étude est d’explorer les liens entre l’usage problématique des réseaux sociaux ...et certaines caractéristiques comportementales et psychologiques chez des jeunes adultes.
Des questionnaires évaluant l’usage problématique des RS (EARS), l’exposition de soi sur les RS (EES), la personnalité (BFI-Fr, NPI-16) et l’estime de soi sociale (IESS) ont été complétés en ligne par 355 participants âgés de 18 à 30 ans (dont 7,04 % d’usagers problématiques).
Les analyses révèlent que les conduites d’exposition de soi, le névrosisme et le narcissisme sont positivement liés à une utilisation problématique des RS, tandis que la conscience, l’agréabilité et l’estime de soi sociale lui sont négativement associés.
Cette étude contribue à une meilleure compréhension de l’usage problématique des RS en prédisant son association à certaines dimensions du fonctionnement psychologique.
Social networks have been developed extremely fast over the past ten years, allowing people to post all kinds of content, including about themselves (pictures, personal information…).
The phenomenon of problematic use of social networks is poorly documented, which is why the purpose of this research is to better understand the link between social network's problematic use and behavioural (self-exposure on social networks) and psychological characteristics (personality and social self-esteem) in young adults between 18 and 30 years old.
A set of questionnaires assessing addiction to social networks (EARS), self-exposure on social networks (EES), personality (Big five: BFI-Fr and narcissism: NPI-16) and social self-esteem (IESS) were completed online by 355 people from all ranges of the French population; 7.04% has a network's problematic use, 77.46% were women and the average age of individuals was 22.72 years.
Group comparison analysis (problematic users versus common users) revealed that self-exposure behaviours on social networks (EES; number of social media; number of hours), neuroticism and narcissism are associated with social network's problematic use, while conscientiousness agreeability and social self-esteem were negatively associated to problematic use. Correlational analysis revealed a positive association between self-exposure behaviours on social networks and social network's problematic use. Moreover, self-exposure and social self-esteem, as well as some dimensions of personality (agreeableness, extraversion and narcissism) were positively correlated. Regression analysis indicated that self-exposure behaviours on social network (EES; number of social media; number of hours) and neuroticism were the most powerful predictors of the social network's problematic use. Self-exposure on social networks, social self-esteem and some facets of personality then become factors either of protection, or of risk, especially when it becomes pathological, going as far as problematic use.
This study provides a better understanding of this phenomenon and enables better-suited prevention and care. The prospect of a new form of problematic use of self-exposure on social networks and psychological or the environmental factors associated to this behaviour needs to be explored in future research.
