Infantilism is a lag in development, the preservation in physical appearance or behavior of traits inherent in previous age stages. Outwardly — an adult, but behaves like a child. The term is used both in relation to physiological and mental phenomena.
Physiological infantilism
In medicine, the concept of «infantilism» refers to a lag in physical development, which manifests itself in some people as a result of cooling, poisoning or infection of the fetus during pregnancy, oxygen starvation during childbirth, serious illnesses in the first months of life, metabolic disorders, disorders in the activity of some glands internal secretion (sex glands, thyroid gland, pituitary gland) and other factors. In such people, the growth and development of all physiological systems of the body slow down.
There are genetically linked variants of infantilism.
Psychological infantilism
Mental infantilism is the immaturity of a person, expressed in a delay in the formation of a personality, in which a person’s behavior does not meet the age requirements for him. The lag is mainly manifested in the development of the emotional-volitional sphere and the preservation of childish personality traits. Naturally, infantile people are not independent. They are used to the fact that others decide everything for them.
At an early age, signs of infantilism, a decrease in the level of behavioral motivations are difficult to detect. Therefore, mental infantilism is usually spoken of only starting from school and adolescence, when the corresponding features begin to appear more clearly.
One of the most important factors in the development of mental infantilism is the parents of a person who do not take a person seriously enough in childhood, replacing the realities of being with fictional images, thus separating a person from reality. That is, in the infantilism of a person born normal, the parents themselves may be to blame.
Typical for infantile children are the predominance of play interests over learning, rejection of school situations and the disciplinary requirements associated with them. This leads to school maladaptation, and in the future — to social problems.
However, infantile children are very different from mentally retarded or autistic children. They are distinguished by a higher level of abstract-logical thinking, are able to transfer the acquired concepts to new specific tasks, are more productive and independent. The dynamics of emerging intellectual insufficiency in infantilism is characterized by favorable behavior with a tendency to smooth cognitive impairment.
Simple infantilism should be distinguished from disharmonious, which can lead to psychopathies.
Sometimes isolated social infantilism — a state that manifests itself in the gap between the biological and socio-cultural maturation of a person. Social infantilism is caused by a violation of the mechanisms of socialization, under the influence of socio-cultural conditions. It can be expressed in the rejection by young people of new responsibilities and obligations associated with the process of growing up, later — unwillingness to start a family (“It’s hard and troublesome!”), give birth and raise children.