The Ones in Their Rooms: Creating ‘The Bridge’

A vision for reaching young people who are becoming increasingly disconnected from education, relationships and the world around them.

We’re looking for parents to get in touch and help us shape our vision for ‘The Bridge’.

We’d be really grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete our short parent feedback form: Please Click Here

At Progeny, we are exploring a new way of reaching young people who need support but aren't yet able to come to school, an education hub or therapy. We want to listen to parents who are living this reality before we develop it further.

The vision: The Bridge

Progeny already provides education hubs and professional counselling and therapy services. But there is a gap: what do we do for the young person who cannot yet come to us?

The Bridge is our proposed response. It is a vision for a gentle, relational pathway that starts by supporting the parent first — helping them understand anxiety and avoidance, reduce unhelpful patterns where appropriate, and hold hope.

Then a named mentor builds gentle, low-demand contact around relationship, trust and shared interests — without pressure to 'fix' or persuade.

When the relationship is ready, the young person can move gradually in small and manageable steps from one-to-one contact towards wider relationships, activities and opportunities. Education or appropriate support becomes the destination, with the mentor who made the first connection helping and remaining available through the transition.

1. Reach the family

2. Build trust

3. Take small steps

4. Support all transitions

A frequent story

Perhaps your child used to enjoy school, friendships or getting out into the world. Then something changed — anxiety, bullying, rejection, loss, overwhelm, or something you can't quite put your finger on. Attendance falls. Confidence falls. The bedroom door stays shut more often than it opens. Emotional dysregulation or withdrawal increases. Your child's world becomes smaller, and you may find yourself wondering what to do next.

Parents crafting the vision

By sharing your experience, you could help us understand what families genuinely need. You don't need to have all the answers. Your experience is valuable in itself.

Tell us what has happened, what has helped, what hasn't, and what you wish someone had offered earlier. Share as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. Your responses will help shape The Bridge. Please don't include your young person's name or other identifying information at this stage.

We’d be really grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete our short parent feedback form: Please Click Here

One young person matters

Statistics can tell us about the scale of the problem. But they don't tell us what it feels like.

It feels like a parent standing outside a bedroom door wondering what happened to their child. It feels like a young person who desperately wants life to be different but cannot see how to take the first step. It looks like missed friendships. Missed learning. Missed opportunities. And sometimes years passing while the world outside keeps moving.

But there is another possibility. A young person doesn't have to make the whole journey in one step. Perhaps they simply need someone willing to make the first step towards them.

That is the heart of The Bridge.

Not forcing the young person across. Not dragging them out. Not waiting passively.

But building a relationship strong enough that, when they are ready, they don't have to cross alone.

Our Christian lens: seeking the one

Jesus tells the story of a shepherd who notices that one sheep is missing. He doesn't simply wait for it to find its way back. He goes looking. And when he finds it: "He lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing." — Luke 15:5

We believe the young people withdrawing into their rooms are not problems to be fixed or lost causes to be written off. They are the one sheep.

We believe our calling is to go looking — gently, patiently and by name — until each young person knows what we want every young person who comes through Progeny to know:

You have Value. You have Identity. You have Purpose. Your VIP status.

Not earned. Not dependent on attendance, achievement or productivity. Given.

Thinking a bit deeper: why are we concerned?

You don't need to read this section before completing the form. It explains some of the current thinking that we are interested in and some questions behind our concerns.

A growing problem of disconnection

Several different issues can appear in the stories of young people who become increasingly isolated. They are not the same thing, and not every young person follows the same pathway. But sometimes they overlap.

Hikikomori — when the world gets smaller

Hikikomori is a Japanese term now used internationally to describe severe and prolonged social withdrawal, involving substantial withdrawal from school, work and face-to-face relationships and often spending much of the time at home.¹ It is no longer considered something that only happens in Japan. A recent UK study of 105 university students found that 21% reported some hikikomori behaviour and 14.3% met the study's criteria for pathological hikikomori.¹

This does not mean that 14.3% of UK young people have hikikomori. The study was relatively small and involved university students. But it does suggest that significant social withdrawal deserves greater attention in the UK.¹

EBSA — when school becomes too difficult

Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) describes situations where emotional distress, anxiety or other difficulties make attending school extremely difficult. A young person experiencing EBSA may desperately want to attend school while simultaneously finding it feel impossible.

There is no single reliable current national prevalence figure for EBSA. Published estimates vary considerably because definitions, monitoring and methods of measurement differ.²

What we do know is that severe absence is substantial. In England, 176,361 pupils were severely absent in 2024/25, meaning they missed more than half of their possible school sessions.³ These figures are for England rather than Northern Ireland, but they illustrate the scale of the wider challenge. A 2025 systematic review of UK school-partnered interventions for EBSA emphasised the importance of early intervention.²

And then there is NEET

NEET means a young person is Not in Education, Employment or Training.

NEET status has many causes and should not be confused with either EBSA or hikikomori. But prolonged disengagement from education can be associated with later difficulties accessing further education and employment. The latest ONS figures show that 1,012,000 young people aged 16–24 — 13.5% of the UK age group — were NEET in January–March 2026, an increase of 89,000 on the previous year.⁴ ONS classifies these as official statistics in development and notes that some volatility remains in the Labour Force Survey estimates.

And there is another part of the picture:

Loneliness

The 2024 Health Survey for England found that 29% of 16–24-year-olds felt lonely at least some of the time, compared with 15% of those aged 65–74.⁵ Loneliness does not explain EBSA or social withdrawal. But it reminds us that isolation is not simply an older person's problem.

Could there be a cycle of disconnection?

We don't believe EBSA, hikikomori and NEET are three stages of one condition. They aren't.

But for some young people, a pattern can develop:

Anxiety → reduced attendance → fewer relationships and experiences → increasing isolation → reduced confidence → an even smaller world.

If that continues for long enough, reconnecting with education, relationships and opportunities may become increasingly difficult. That raises an important question: What if we need to reach some young people before they are ready to come to us?

A hypothesis we are reflecting on

We want to be particularly careful here. We are not claiming to have found the answer.

But through our work, we have become increasingly interested in whether some of the young people most affected may experience the world particularly deeply or sensitively.

Sensitivity

Psychologists have studied Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) as an individual difference in how people process and respond to their environment. Research has estimated that around 15–20% of the population may be relatively high in this trait. Sensitivity itself is not a disorder or diagnosis.⁶ For some people it can be associated with empathy, creativity, awareness and depth of processing. It can also mean becoming overwhelmed more easily when emotional or environmental demands become intense. Research involving young people experiencing hikikomori has found associations between environmental sensitivity, attachment and psychological difficulties. However, this research does not establish that sensitivity causes withdrawal.⁷ That distinction matters. We are not saying that being sensitive causes a young person to withdraw.

We are asking whether some young people who experience the world more intensely may be particularly affected when that sensitivity meets an increasingly demanding environment.

An always-on world

Today's young people live in an environment that rarely switches off. Phones. Notifications. Social media. Gaming. Entertainment. Social comparison. Constant information. Sometimes frightening or disturbing content. Technology brings enormous benefits, and we don't want to portray it as the enemy. But there is growing evidence that how screens are used matters, particularly when screen use interferes with sleep and other activities. A study of 4,810 Swedish adolescents aged 12–16 found that greater screen time was associated with deterioration in several aspects of sleep. Among girls, the relationship between screen time and later depressive symptoms was substantially mediated through sleep.⁸ This does not prove that screens cause depression or social withdrawal.

But it raises an important question: Could the combination of sensitivity, reduced recovery time, disrupted sleep, social comparison and particular forms of digital engagement contribute to withdrawal for some young people? We think that question deserves further attention.

What about autism and ADHD?

Recorded autism diagnoses have risen substantially. NHS data analysed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies show that around 2.3% of current under-10s and 4.6% of current 10–17-year-olds have an autism diagnosis, compared with 1.4% and 2.9% respectively in 2019–20.⁹

This does not mean that screens cause autism. Autism is a real neurodevelopmental condition, and it is not caused by poor parenting. The increase in recorded diagnoses is likely to involve multiple factors, including awareness, recognition, diagnostic practice and increased demand for assessment. There is, however, emerging research exploring whether very high levels of early screen exposure may sometimes be associated with autism-like behaviours or developmental difficulties.

A 2026 review discusses the proposed concept of "virtual autism". However, this is not an established clinical diagnosis, should not be confused with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and the evidence does not establish that screen exposure causes autism.¹⁰ The same caution applies to ADHD.

So we are not saying that screens cause autism or ADHD. We are asking whether the environment in which some neurodivergent and highly sensitive young people are growing up may sometimes amplify difficulties with regulation, sleep, stimulation and social connection.

All of the above is a question for further research. In the meantime we are compelled to do something. To go to those who can’t yet come to us.

→ PLEASE COMPLETE THE PARENT FEEDBACK FORM:

References

1. Hassan, I., Chumun, K.K., Elkholy, H. & Nagai, Y. (2026). Social withdrawal among university students in the UK: the emerging hikikomori phenomena. British Journal of Psychiatry. Published online 20 July 2026. DOI: 10.1192/bjp.2026.10688.

2. McDonald, C. & Pervez, A. (2025). School partnered approaches to emotionally based school avoidance in UK primary and secondary school-age learners: A systematic review. British Educational Research Journal, 51, 2871–2892. DOI: 10.1002/berj.4205.

3. Centre for Social Justice (2026). School Absence Tracker. Analysis of Department for Education data found that 176,361 pupils were severely absent in 2024/25.

4. Office for National Statistics (2026). Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), UK: May 2026.In January–March 2026, an estimated 1,012,000 people aged 16–24 (13.5%) were NEET in the UK, an increase of 89,000 year-on-year. These are official statistics in development.

5. NHS England Digital (2026). Health Survey for England 2024: Loneliness and wellbeing. In 2024, 29% of adults aged 16–24 reported feeling lonely at least some of the time, compared with 15% of those aged 65–74.

6. Aron, E.N. & Aron, A. (1997). Sensory-processing sensitivity and its relation to introversion and emotionality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(2), 345–368. The commonly cited estimate is that approximately 15–20% of the population score high on the SPS trait.

7. Santona, A. et al. (2023). Sensitivity and Attachment in an Italian Sample of Hikikomori Adolescents and Young Adults.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20, 6148. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20126148.

8. Hökby, S. et al. (2025). Adolescents' screen time displaces multiple sleep pathways and elevates depressive symptoms over twelve months. PLOS Global Public Health, 5(4), e0004262. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0004262.

9. Institute for Fiscal Studies (2025). Support for children with disabilities and special educational needs. Analysis of NHS data found that around 2.3% of current under-10s and 4.6% of current 10–17-year-olds had an autism diagnosis, compared with 1.4% and 2.9% respectively in 2019–20.

10. Ozyazici, K. (2026). Screen time and autism-like symptoms in early childhood: Examining the concept of virtual autism. Acta Psychologica, 268, 107285. DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.107285.

Evidence and limitations

We have sought to distinguish between established evidence, emerging research and hypotheses that Progeny is continuing to explore. Where evidence is limited or contested, we have sought to make that clear. This is a vision and starting point for conversation, not a finished clinical model or established intervention. Some of the evidence discussed is well established; some is emerging; and some of the questions we raise are hypotheses that require further research.

Our hope is not simply to describe a problem. It is to find a way of reaching the young person who currently cannot reach us. Because sometimes the first step towards healing is not asking someone to cross the bridge — but being willing to build one.