What is squatting?

Home squatting refers to teenagers who choose to isolate themselves from the rest of the world due to social exclusion, and who feel that it is difficult for them to have a place in society, and are therefore socially withdrawn.

The squatters usually still live with their parents or shut themselves up in their rooms for long periods of time. According to the findings of Saito Ring, a Japanese psychologist who first used the term. There are about 1 million home squatters across Japan, accounting for about 10% of Japanese teenagers, and most home squatters are the eldest child in the family.

Etymology

Japan's Saito Huan called such Japanese youths "引き篭り" in the early days, which translates as "to stay in the house".

Definition of "housebound"

Housebound is a social phenomenon in which people of all ages may suffer from hidden problems. A person can be considered to be suffering from "homebound" if he or she experiences the following for more than three months:

Lack of connection and participation in social systems, including work, education, training, friends, community, and in more severe cases, even family systems.

Weak interpersonal skills, fear or refusal of contact or conversation.

No social identity status, such as student, employed, trained, participant in community activities, etc.

Facing different social exclusion such as poverty, school, labor market, community, friends, school, etc.

Causes of houseboundness

Societies in Japan and other highly urbanized areas in East Asia (e.g., cities in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, etc.) often put pressures on adolescents to feel that they are failures and useless. These pressures have many sources.

Japan and the youth in advanced East Asian regions are most worried about their performance under the education system. East Asian education is based on duck-feeding education, coupled with the traditional belief that high academic qualifications are the only way to get ahead, resulting in promotionism, and they feel that there is a lot of pressure exerted by their parents and society. There are some extreme examples of such pressure starting from kindergarten, as they have to pass examinations to enter the best kindergartens, and then the best elementary school, middle schools, high schools and even universities. In Japan, most adolescents spend an extra year or more after high school (these unaffiliated students, commonly known as "ronin") dealing with entrance tests for better universities. The more prestigious the school, the more difficult it is to get in; competition is just as fierce at China's prestigious schools.

When they graduate from high school or college, they face difficulties in finding employment. Most of them can only find part-time jobs, which don't pay enough to cover personal and family expenses, let alone start a family.

Other sources of stress include being bullied or ostracized by peers for reasons such as being overweight, academic or physical performance, wealth and race. Some people are punished for bullying others, which brings shame to their families.

Signs of "housebound"

Signs of "housebound" are evident in adolescents/adults whose daily behaviors, patterns of living, and moods show signs of "housebound" problems, including:

Personal motivation

Signs of "housebound" problems include

Lack of success and confusion about the future in the face of different social rejections and frustrations

Beginning to dislike/reduce going out; staying at home with computers, TV, books, sleep, or hobbies

Don't want to go to school, work, and are not motivated to do things that used to be of interest to the individual

Interpersonal interactions

Reduced/fearful of Refusal to talk to and meet people

Gradual disinterest in friends, family, and things around them, or even disregard

Emotions

Moodiness

Low and unstable moods, lack of desire to express their personal feelings and thoughts to others

Signs of being left alone

When they feel pressure from the outside and may be afraid to face some social situations, they will choose to They may choose to avoid or defend themselves in order to minimize the stress and hurt caused by the outside world. Typical examples are locking themselves up in a bedroom or other room for a good period of time. Most of them have few friends. And while they spend the daytime cuddled up in bed, at night they spend time watching TV, playing computer games or browsing the Internet.

Refusing in these ways to participate in social situations or to live up to their expectations makes the homebody an extreme case, or a "parasitic single". These people are seen refusing to engage with society.

Housemates are often socially withdrawn when they shut themselves away in their rooms, acting unhappy, having no friends, often feeling threatened, being shy, and having few conversations. They are often bullied at school and pressured by school and family to stay at home.

Parental response

Homesteadedness is often seen as a family matter, and many parents wait and see for a long time before seeking help from social workers or psychologists. In East Asia, mothers are the primary educators and caregivers in most families, so fathers often blame the mother for the problem. In most cases, parents just wait and see if their children, who are called "squatters", will improve naturally. Too many parents think that this is the way of squatting, and that their children will reintegrate into the society naturally after a period of time. But there are a few parents who will force their children to reintegrate.

For Japanese families, having a squatter in the family is often an embarrassment, and the family's shame is often not publicized. Schools and social workers may inquire, but rarely intervene. In recent years, as a result of widespread media coverage and attention, cases of squatting have been viewed as socially sick and associated with mental illness, and the resulting shame has caused many families to hide the presence of a squatting child in their home as much as possible, delaying the need to seek outside help for the child.

Treatment

There are two main approaches to treating squatting children: the Japanese view and the Western view. Japanese scholars generally recommend waiting for them to reintegrate into society; Western doctors would recommend proactively asking them to join the community and forcing them to do so when necessary.

In the past few years, "home squatting support" has flourished in Japan in its own form and philosophy. In addition, there are generally two modes of treatment. The first is to provide psychotherapy to the squatters concerned, as most of the squatters' family members do not have a deep understanding of the problem and are overly nervous about it. The other approach is to view squatting as a social problem rather than a psychological disorder (e.g., disconnect between education and employment, high levels of violence in schools, and globalization resulting in the migration of middle- and low-ranking jobs). In addition to formal medical treatment, the squatters concerned will be sent to live with other squatters in treatment so that they can learn to leave their familiar home environment in their daily life and regain the skills of dealing with others. This approach also helps them to understand that they are not the only ones who are squatting, and has proven to be more successful.

The global picture

While in general, this can only be applied to the East Asian region, where education policies put a lot of pressure on students. On the other hand, young people in the West also feel pressure from outside or peer-to-peer bullying, in much the same way as they do at home. In the worst cases, it can lead to bloodshed, such as the Columbine school incident in Colorado, U.S.A., in which 15 people were killed and 24 injured. Japanese psychologists estimate that there are currently about one million house squatters in Japan, the youngest even as young as 13, some of whom have been locked in their rooms for up to 15 years, and 80% of whom are male.