How do we prepare our kids for a changing world?

A trend toward long-term social isolation that began among young people in Japan is going global, writes Justin Thomas.

What triggers social isolation among some young people?

"The top 10 in-demand jobs in the future don’t exist today. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

This was a prediction made by former US secretary of education Richard Riley in 2004. This phrase, or a variation on it, is often uttered in an almost boastful manner, typically by well-meaning educators. Meanwhile, our children are also being bombarded with talk of driverless cars and the rise of the robot. What job do you want to do when you leave school? I suspect the answer to this timeless question is increasingly: “I don’t know.”

In Japan over the past few decades, there has been an epidemic of a mental health problem termed hikikomori – extreme occupational and social withdrawal. The typical profile of a hikikomori is that of a male, middle-class university graduate who shuts himself away in his bedroom, surfing the net by night, sleeping by day. These individuals are unemployed, have minimal contact with the outside world, and even avoid contact with family. For a diagnosis, the problem has to have persisted for at least six months, but there are cases that have lasted for decades. Some now view hikikomori on a spectrum of severity, with those exhibiting a milder form of the problem termed “Neets” (Not in employment, education or training).

The Japanese ministry of health, labour and welfare define Neets as “people who are not employed, not in school, not a homemaker and not seeking a job”. A common connection between Neets and hikikomori is that neither of them want jobs.

There are many proposed causes for hikikomori. Some blame over-indulgent parents, some suggest it is the negative outcome of Japanese youth adopting individualistic values while living in a collectivist society.

Others have even associated it with the autistic spectrum. Like autism, hikikomori is far more common among males.

While there is no consensus on the exact causes, two common psychological risk factors have been identified: Neets and hikikomori both report having low self-competence (negative beliefs about one's own abilities) and a lack of clear goals. In Japan this has become a huge social problem, with both health care experts and government reports suggesting that close to one million Japanese adults can be classed as hikikomori.

But is this only a Japanese problem? We once talked about anorexia and bulimia nervosa as culture-bound syndromes, problems specific to western nations. Today, these disorders are reported globally. Some suggest the same is also becoming true of hikikomori. There are documented reports from South Korea, Italy and the UK.

The 2015 Youth Index report, based on interviews with more than 2,265 young people in the UK, concludes that: “More than half of unemployed young people in the UK feel anxious about everyday life and four out of 10 said this anxiety had stopped them from leaving the house and nearly 50 per cent said they avoided meeting new people.”

In the Gulf states, the process of increasing workforce nationalisation requires well-educated young citizens. However, in addition to education there also has to be motivation and ambition. In the case of Neets and hikikomori, occupational goals and ambition are typically absent and the will to work is lacking.

As well as research exploring workforce requirements, it would also be useful to examine how best to support our youth in terms of their psychological well-being. We are preparing today’s children for jobs that don’t yet exist. Uncertainty is very often associated with fear and avoidance. Our children may need better psychological support than we ever received. The world has changed. We also need to prepare our children for psychological disorders that don’t exist yet.

Dr Justin Thomas is an associate professor at Zayed University and author of Psychological Well-Being in the Gulf States

On Twitter: @DrJustinThomas