Reengaging Youth with Prolonged Social Withdrawal Behaviours in Hong Kong: Efficacy of an Intervention Programme Involving Human and Non-human Partners

Abstract

This study examined the efficacy of a multicomponent intervention program for reengaging youth with prolonged social withdrawal behaviors (YPSW) in Hong Kong. Highlighting the involvement of more approachable others encompassing human and non-human partners, the intervention program included case work, group work, and transitional support activities for re-connecting YPSW to community. It turned out that 125 participants, counting as 75% of all participants, who were not in education or employment before enrolling into the program, have managed to find a full-time (i.e. 28.8% of all participants) or part-time (11.2%) job, or resume schooling (35.2%) after going through the program. Significant pre-post changes were identified in terms of reduced socially withdrawn behaviors and social interaction anxiousness, and enhanced self-esteem and perceived self-employability. The paper discussed the implications for informing multi-component intervention work and research study for reengaging YPSWs accordingly.

Keywords:

• animal-assisted intervention
• Hikikomori
• human and non-human partners
• more approachable others
• youth with prolonged social withdrawal behaviors

Acknowledgments

We thank all the volunteer non-human animals and guardians of the animals participating in the programme. And most importantly, we thank all the colleagues from the Chinese Evangelical Zion Church who made this research possible. In delivering these services, the RM programme also worked in partnership with several NGOs: the Richmond Fellowship of Hong Kong providing clinical psychology services, the Hong Kong Animal Therapy Foundation and Fat Fat the therapy dog providing AAT supervision intervention and the Animals Asia Foundation, and the Mongrel Club providing non-human animal visitations.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Hong Kong. All participants were well-informed about the objectives of the research and signed a consent form before joining the research.

Author contributions

Paul W. C. Wong designed the research study, collected data, and drafted the manuscript. Xuebing Su developed the conceptual framework based on the concept of more approachable others, conducted data analysis, drafted and edited the manuscript. Rose W. M. Yu designed the research study, conducted data cleaning, and co-drafted the manuscript. Tim M. H. Li designed the research study and co-drafted the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the first author upon reasonable request.