Peter Pan Syndrome “Men Who Don’t Grow”: Developing a Scale

Abstract

Peter Pan Syndrome is a concept that used to characterize the “never-growing” men who have reached an adult age, but cannot face their adult sensations and responsibilities. Individuals with Peter Pan Syndrome have difficulties in social and professional relationships because of their irresponsible behaviors and narcissistic properties. The purpose of this study is to develop a scale in order to measure the level of Peter Pen Syndrome in male individuals. In accordance with this purpose, the draft form was sent to experts to get their feedback, and some statements have been revised in accordance with the feedback. The Peter Pan Syndrome Scale is a twenty-two-item self-report measurement, and each item is evaluated on five-point Likert Type scale. Construct validity of the scale was determined by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a three-factor model was created, namely, “Escape from Responsibility”, “Power Perception,” and “Never Growing Child”. EFA results shows that these three factors were describing 47.05% of the variance. Results of EFA were verified by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The internal consistency coefficient and the confidence coefficient of the split-half were used to determine the reliability of the scale. The Cronbach’s alpha value was found to be 0.88 for the total scale.

Keywords

psychology family emotion hegemonic masculinity culture

One of the most important tasks of life is that an individual develops an appropriate identity concept by passing through various developmental stages. Consistency and continuity are important for the concept of identity, which can be defined as the answer to the question “Who am I?”, especially when it becomes visible in interpersonal relations and externally observed behaviors. Erikson (1968) emphasizes the importance of psychosocial wellness in the development of an individual’s identity. According to him, the sense of belonging and the sense of acceptance by their relatives helps an individual to acquire the appropriate identity concept (Arslan 2008).

Although the critical period for identity acquisition is adolescence, identity acquisition is not a process that begins and ends with puberty (Ilhan and Özdemir 2012). The concept of “emerging adulthood” developed by Arnett (1994) is a developmental period that includes the era between puberty and adulthood. People in emerging adulthood state that they have completed puberty, but have not yet seen themselves as adults (Dogan and Cebioğlu 2011). The word “adult” comes from the term “grow” from the Latin word, and it includes physiological and psychological growth. Being an adult is assumed to have mattered in these aspects. Arnett (2004) mentions psychological determiners that are important in the transition to adulthood. The first one is that the process of “completing separation-individualization” and the second one is the process of “psychological maturity,” which includes features such as impulse control, taking responsibility, and having a non-centralist perspective (Atak, Desserts, Cokamay, Buyukpabuscu, and Much 2016).

Kiley (1997) used the concept of Peter Pan Syndrome to identify men who did not comply with these adult characteristics; the concept comes from a hero form story. Peter Pan, the hero James M. Barrie created, originally emerged from Barrie’s life story. Barrie, who impersonated his deceased brother and never grew up in this role, cannot assume responsibility for not growing up and cannot have a long-term emotional relationship with a woman (Skinner 1957).

Peter Pan Syndrome, created from the story, is a concept used to describe the “never-growing” men who have reached an adult age, but cannot face their adult emotions and responsibilities. There is a noticeable mismatch between the age and maturity levels of these men. Kiley (1997) portrayed this situation as “trapped in hell between the man who no longer wants to be, and the child he cannot be.” The figure of Peter Pan can also be seen as a conceptual filter-ambivalent condition for a growing adolescent moratorium between childhood and adulthood (Fried and Vandereycken 1989). Mirkin (1983) also describes it as a syndrome that involves staying as a child and thus sustaining protection of the parents.

Although the roots of the syndrome are based on childhood, the symptoms show up around the age of twelve years. According to Kiley, there is a pronounced irresponsibility, especially in the age of eleven—twelve years. An individual is affected by the problematic environment between the mother and father at the age of thirteen—fourteem years, and it leads to a very anxious environment for entering puberty. When irresponsibility and uneasiness are combined, the state of dilatoriness that is the main characteristics of the psychological profile of the syndrome emerges. And ultimately, the individual refuses to attempt anything, making sure that his effort will not work. Instead, procrastination is seen in chosen activities. At the beginning of puberty, the person decides that something goes wrong between their parents and that the wrong is about him. The apparent problem for the ages of fifteen—sixteen years is the feeling of loneliness. The inability to enter groups of friends; even if entering a friendship group, not seeing themselves as a member of the group, and engaging in inappropriate situations strengthen their loneliness. When it comes to the age of seventeen—eighteen years, a period of intense sexual involvement begins. Emerging sexual attitudes are often lacking in warmth and restricted to the search for biological satisfaction. Any approval or disapproval that comes from others is sufficient for him to feel valued or worthless. Such situations drag him between manic and depressive emotion situations. The individual has learned to steer clear of their emotions in order to not get hurt, and therefore tend to be cold and indifferent. In the age of nineteen—twenty years, the pursuit of perfection and narcissism are evident, which is used to cover the emotions of distrust and worthlessness. In addition to narcissism, in the age of twenty-one—twenty-two years, chauvinism becomes a part of his daily life. It is a way of making him feel like he is a grown up. After the age of thirty years, he feels disappointed in spite of all his efforts, and the feelings of loneliness, inability to belong, and despair begin to cope (Kiley 1997).

People with this syndrome feel valuable to the extent that they are accepted by other people. However, they have difficulties in interpersonal relationships because of their ability to search for perfection, such as narcissism and chauvinism. Another issue that complicit their relationship is that they tend to always attribute responsibility to something or to someone else because they do not want to accept their own mistakes (Kiley 1997). These people are struggling to express their emotions; therefore, they can often only turn to sexuality oriented relationships rather than emotional proximity (Quadrio 1982). On the other hand, they expect the woman to act as their mother, and prefer a woman who can protect them from internal conflicts, and who feels compassion for them because of the woman’s obedience and emotional weaknesses (Kiley 1997).

According to Quadrio (1982), men with Peter Pan Syndrome tend to have instability in their profession and career issues, similar to their romantic relationships. In general, they wants a career, but they do not want to work for it. The person is not encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, and is also left suppressing their sensitivity and other characteristics that may be interpreted as weakness (Kiley 1997).

Seven prominent features in the psychological profile of an individual with Peter Pan Syndrome are as follows (Kiley 1997): a) Emotional paralysis: Emotions are dull or expressed in inappropriate forms. For example, anger often arises as an intense rage; happiness become hysteria of joy, and frustration can turn into self-pity. Individuals with Peter Pan Syndrome are extremely self-centered. b) Dilatoriness: There is a pronounced apathy as an extension of the negative self-image. There are also uncertain or not well-defined targets, as they postpone thinking about their goals in life. c) Social impotence: These men feel very alone, anxious about their loneliness. But despite the wishes and requirements of belonging, it can be said that they cannot acquire real friends. Refraining from taking responsibility for their actions is a condition that complicating social relationships. d) The magic thought: They refrain from accepting their mistakes clearly and taking responsibility for their actions. e) Mother’s calendar: The individual wants to get rid of the influence of his mother; but every time he tries it, he feels guilty. This situation is especially manifested when he get close to a woman. He wants the woman in his life to behave in a certain way and within the boundaries he draws, and puts her in his mother’s place. He becomes angry when the woman in his life deviates from his expectations. f) Father’s calendar: An individual is missing being close to his father; but he decides he would never get his father’s love and approval. He feels alienated from his father and experiences problems with men who represent authority in the later stages of his life. g) Sexual calendar: A woman is supposed to be addicted to a man so he can feel like protecting the woman. He misses sharing his sensibility with a woman, but he denies that aspect of his personality for fear that his friends will see his as a weak person. Although he is afraid of being rejected by women, he may exhibit rude and critical attitudes towards them. It is far from showing consistent attitudes in relations with the opposite sex.

In the background, these people are not satisfied with their parents’ marriages and with themselves. The lack of sharing and emotional warmth in the family is apparent. There is a father who is emotionally camouflaged, and an overprotective and commanding mother figure. There are often no direct-voiced relationship issues between the mother and father. These problems are usually transmitted through messages covered by the boy in question (Kiley 1997). The child who sees his mother as an almighty, hostile, and controlling person feels oppressed by her (Quadrio 1982). With alienation from father and the guilt and anger towards mother, a low self-image is developing, and as a result, the person does not feel a sense of belonging to his family (Kiley 1997).

Dalla, Marchetti, Sechrest, and White (2010) did a study with women who have husbands with Peter Pan Syndrome, and they found that these men were never able to establish a real close relationship with their wives, drank too much alcohol, did not work, showed a tendency towards deception, were not emotionally involved in the relationship. In this study, four themes emerged in the long-term close relations of women: limited spouse support, substance abuse, deception, and co-violence.

The explanations given earlier show that individuals with Peter Pan Syndrome experience difficulties in close relationships, and business and social relations in the context of not being responsible, not behaving like an adult, and having narcissistic properties. The number of studies on Peter Pan Syndrome is very small when the literature is examined. In Turkey, there is no scientific study on this issue. In the present study, a Turkish version of the Peter Pan Syndrome Scale was developed, and validity and reliability studies of the developed scale were done. It is thought that determining the level of having Peter Pan Syndrome is important for psychological assistance to individuals, and it can be used in psychological symptoms, romantic relations, and career research. In this context, a measurement tool was developed, and the validity-confidence level was determined in the study.

Method

Participants

This study was performed with male individuals over eighteen years of age, determined by a random sampling method. About 60.6% of respondents were single (n = 241), 35.4% were married (n = 141) and 4% were divorced. The parents of 84.2% of the men participating in the study are both alive, and the parents of 89.9% are together. The average age of the participants is 29.85 (Ss = 7.99).

In the process of developing the Peter Pan Syndrome Scale, two working groups were created: In the first study group, data was collected from 190 male individuals, and with this data, item analysis and the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were conducted. The second working group consisted of 208 male individuals who were reached for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Procedure

The first stage of the development process of the Peter Pan Syndrome Scale is reviewing the literature for Peter Pan Syndrome. Then, an item pool consisting of thirty-one expressions, which is considered to cover all the features of Peter Pan Syndrome, is prepared. The statements in the generated item pool are presented to three faculty members, whose specialty is psychological counseling and guidance. Some statements have been revised in accordance with feedback from these experts in terms of subject, scope, and language use. A 5-point Likert-type trial scale was created for thirty-one items (1-Strongly disagree, 2-Partially agree, 3-Moderately agree, 4-Mostly agree, 5-Strongly agree).

In the second stage, a thirty-one-item trial scale has been applied to 190 male participants, and the item analysis and EFA was conducted. Item total correlation values have been taken into consideration with six items. According to EFA findings on the remaining twenty-five items, three items were extracted and twenty-two items were obtained.

In the third stage, a twenty-two-item scale was applied to 208 male participants, and CFA on the data was calculated and the adaptation values of the model were computed. Finally, the reliability coefficients of the scale are calculated.

Data Collection and Analysis

The data were collected from male individuals over 18 years of age, and through the internet in accordance with voluntary participation. The scale application took approximately ten minutes. SPSS 21 and AMOS 22 programs were used in the analysis of the data.

Results

Exploratory Factor Analysis

The scale consisting of thirty-one items was applied to the 190 male participants, and correlations of item-total scores were calculated. Item-total test correlation is one of the item analysis techniques used in item selection when developing a scale, and it is recommended that the correlation value be higher than 0.30 (Büyüköztürk, Kılıç-Çakmak, Akgün, Karadeniz, and Demirel 2012). In light of this information, six items with item-total test correlation values below 0.30 were removed and twenty-five items were left on the trial scale.

In order to determine the construct validity of the scale, first, conformity of the data to the factor analysis was examined with the Barlett Sphericitiy test and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficient. The value of the KMO is greater than sixty, and the significance of the Barlett test suggests that the data is suitable for factor analysis (Büyüköztürk 2011). In this study, the KMO sample coefficient and the Barlett Sphericitiy test χ²value were founded to be 0.839 and 1,706,295 (p < 0.001) respectively. These results indicate that the data is suitable for factor analysis.

To determine the factor structure and sub-dimensions of the twenty-five-item trial scale, the EFA has been conducted and varimax vertical rotation technique has been applied. By examining the factor load values in the sub-dimensions of each item, items with factor load less than 0.30 are removed (Brown 2014). In addition, the difference between the two highest factor loads of an item should not be less than 0.10 (Büyüköztürk et al. 2012). Accordingly, three items with less than 0.10 differences between the factor loadings in the sub-dimensions have been extracted. Then, EFA was conducted again for the remaining twenty-two items and their values were examined. In this regard, the value of the first factor is 6,668 and the value of the second factor is calculated as 2,127. The values of the third, fourth, and fifth factors were 1,556, 1,307, and 1,080 respectively. When the literature is taken into consideration and the scree plot given in Figure 1 is examined, it can be said that the data is more suitable for the three-factor structure.

Figure 1.

Scree Plot

The three-factor structure was formed by taking into consideration the literature, the values, and the Scree plot. These three factors explain the 47.05% of the total variance. The value of the first factor was calculated as 6,668, which explains the 17.81% of the variance of the Peter Pan Syndrome variable. The value of the second factor is calculated as 2,127, which explains the 15.53% of the variance of Peter Pan Syndrome. The value of the third factor is calculated as 1,556, which explains the 13.71% of the variance of the Peter Pan Syndrome variable. Item factor load values vary between 431 and. 759 (See Table 1).

Table 1.

Item Factor Load Values

Item No.	1. Factor	2. Factor	3. Factor
1	0.720
3	0.729
4	0.549
5	0.747
6	0.559
16	0.641
17	0.669
21	0.532
2		0.551
8		0.457
12		0.736
13		0.607
14		0.477
15		0.707
18		0.759
22		0.486
7			0.596
9			0.441
10			0.629
11			0.686
19			0.719
20			0.431
Eigenvalue	6,668	2,127	1,556
Variance	17.81%	15.53%	13.71%
Total Variance: 47.05%

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

To test the model created according to the EFA outcome, the twenty-two-item scale was applied to the 208 male participants and the CFA was performed on the collected data. Goodness of fit indexes, which are χ², RMSEA, GFI, AGFI, and CFI, are commonly used (Sumer 2000). Acceptable fit limits values of goodness of fit indexes (Byrne 2009; Kline 2005; Tabachnick and Fidell 2013), and the results regarding the proposed model fit in this study are shown in Table 2.

Table 2.

Goodness-of-Fit Indexes and Values Regarding the Model

Fit Index	Values of Good Fit Limits	Values of Acceptable Fit Limits	Value For This Model
$χ^{2}$ /sd	$χ^{2}$ /SD $\leq$ 3	3 < $χ^{2}$ /sd $\leq$ 5	1.26
P	$0.05 \leq p \leq 1$	$0.00 \leq p < 0.05$	0.01
RMSEA	RMSEA $<$ . 05	0.05 $\leq$ RMSEA $\leq$ 0.10	0.03
GFI	$0.95 \leq GFI \leq 1$	$0.90 \leq GFI < 0.95$	0.91
AGFI	$0.90 \leq AGFI \leq 1$	$0.85 \leq AGFI < 0.90$	0.86
CFI	$0.97 \leq CFI \leq 1$	$0.95 \leq CFI < 0.97$	0.96

The statistical conformity of the model was tested with $χ^{2}$ /sd, and it was found less than 3 ( $χ^{2}$ /sd = 1.26). Also, p value is determined as p = 0. 01. The acquired p value between. 0 and 0.05 suggests that the goodness of fit index of the model is in an acceptable fit limit. As shown in Table 3, the other goodness of fit index values of the model are RMSEA =0.03, GFI = 0.91, AGC = 0.86, and CFI = 0.96. When the goodness of fit index results are examined, the model is considered to be in a good fit and acceptable fit limits. The three-factor model for the scale can be confirmed with the CFA. The three-factor model for Peter Pan Syndrome Scale is given in Figure 2.

Table 3.

Item-Total Test Correlations

Item No	Item-Total TestCorrelations
1	0.595
2	0.321
3	0.571
4	0.526
5	0.530
6	0.375
7	0.421
8	0.442
9	0.471
10	0.520
11	0.599
12	0.396
13	0.334
14	0.486
15	0.388
16	0.504
17	0.410
18	0.303
19	0.650
20	0.497
21	0.552
22	0.421

Figure 2.

Three-Factor Model for Peter Pan Syndrome Scale

Finally, taking into consideration the relevant literature and items included in factors, the first factor is named as “Escape from Responsibility”, the second factor is named as “Power Perception,” and the third factor is named as “Never Growing Child”. The first factor includes eight items, the second factor includes eight items, and the third factor includes six items. There are no reverse items on the scale. The lowest score to be obtained from the scale is 22 and the highest score is 110. The higher the total score taken from the scale indicates that the level of Peter Pan Syndrome is high.

Item-Total Correlation Values and Subscales Correlation Values

The item-total test correlation values of twenty-two items on the trial scale are given in Table 3. The fact that the item-total test correlation coefficient is greater than 0.30 indicates that the item is sufficiently discriminatory, that is, the expected property can be measured with the whole scale (Büyüköztürk et al. 2012). Item-total test correlations in the current study range between 0.303 and 0.650. Thus, it can be said that all items in the developed scale are sufficient to discriminate the property to be measured.

Pearson correlation coefficients between subscales are given in Table 4. The correlation coefficients in the subscales were found as 0.510, 0.538, and 0.636 (p < 0.01). Thus, it can be said that there is significant positive correlation between the subscales.

Table 4.

Correlations Coefficients between Subscales

	Escape from Responsibility	Power Perception	Never Growing Child
Escape from responsibility	–	0.510*	0.636*
Power perception	–	–	0.538*
Never growing child	–	–	–

* p < 0.01

Findings on the Reliability of the Scale

In order to test the reliability of the scale, the Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient and the split-half reliability coefficient have been calculated. Internal consistency (Cronbach Alpha) coefficient was found as 0.88. The split-half reliability coefficient was found as 0.83 for the first half, and 0.79 for the second half. According to these results, it can be said that the reliability of the Peter Pan Syndrome Scale is sufficient.

Discussion and Conclusion

The aim of this study was to develop a measurement tool to determine the levels of Peter Pan Syndrome of male individuals. Peter Pan Syndrome is a concept used to describe men who have reached an adult age, but cannot face their adult emotions and responsibilities—“never growing.”

The Peter Pan Syndrome Scale is a 5-point Likert-type scale consisting of twenty-two items. In order to determine the construct validity of the scale, EFA was conducted, and the results showed that there are three factors describing 47.05% of the variance. As a result of the CFA, the goodness of fit index values for the model have been determined to be in good fit and acceptable fit limits. In other words, the three-factor model created with EFA is confirmed by the CFA.

The reliability of the Peter Pan Syndrome Scale was calculated by the internal consistency coefficient and the confidence coefficient of the split-half. The internal consistency coefficient was found as 0.88 for total scale, and split-half reliability coefficient for the first part was found as 0.83 and for the second half was found as 0.79. These results show that the reliability of the Peter Pan Syndrome Scale is adequate.

In the Peter Pan Syndrome Scale, there are eight items in the first factor, “Escape from Responsibility”; eight items in the second factor, “Power Perception”; and six items in the third factor, “Never Growing Child”. The lowest score to be obtained from the scale is 22 and the highest score is 110. A high the total score taken from the scale indicates that the level of Peter Pan Syndrome is high.

The Peter Pan Syndrome Scale was developed on men over eighteen years of age without the separation of marital status. In future studies, it may be suggested that Peter Pan Syndrome be examined for men’s marital status, their romantic relationship, whether their parents are together or are separated, and the age they lost their parents. Considering the effect of Peter Pan Syndrome on the romantic relationships of men, both in individual psychological counseling and psychotherapies, and in marriage and double consultation, the scale can be used to evaluate male clients because of its good psychometric properties.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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