How the Stress of Separation and Detention Changes the Lives of Children

[teach1st]

How the Stress of Separation and Detention Changes the Lives of Children
New Yorker, by Isaac Chotiner, Q&A with Jack P. Shonkoff—a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, 7/13/2019

The horrific accounts of the conditions under which immigrant children are being held has focussed outrage and attention on the Trump Administration’s actions and agenda. But any future reversal of policy will do little to help kids who have already been detained—many of them after being separated from a parent or other relative. The psychological effects of separation and detention have worried experts in child development, and some of them are speaking out. The American Psychological Association, among other groups, has issued multiple statements on the effects of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, writing that they “pose serious harm to the psychological well-being of immigrant children, their U.S.-born siblings, and other family members.”

I recently spoke with Jack P. Shonkoff—a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a professor of child health and development at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education—whose research has addressed the consequences of excessive stress on young children. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the psychological effects of detention, the differences in how toddlers and teen-agers register trauma, and why kids who appear to have adapted to their circumstances are often at risk of the most serious problems.

What most concerns you about what we have read about and seen from these border facilities holding children?

Oh, God, where do I begin? I think—to cut through all of the noise, the politics, the back-and-forth on the details—there are just two core issues that are screaming out. One is the fact that the forced and abrupt separation of children from their parents is a huge psychological trauma and assault. The magnitude of the nature of the crisis for a child’s health and well-being cannot be overstated. Abrupt separation from primary caregivers or parents is a major psychological emergency.

The second issue is the prolonged placement of children in institutional settings. Obviously, the two are linked in this particular situation. From the perspective of what we know about children’s health and well-being, what we know about trauma, abrupt separation is one area where we have a lot of research and a lot of evidence about its consequences. But prolonged institutionalization is a separate area in which we have an equally deep research base and knowledge about how damaging that kind of setting is for kids. We are dealing with two very well-studied, serious assaults on the health and well-being of children.

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[erronis]

1. We'll never know the deep harm done to these children. And reparations?

For these currently abused as well as thousands/millions that this country has abused over the centuries.

Personally I'd offer free housing and nurture and education for as long as they needed it. I'd offer them a chance to watch their captors being held accountable. I'd hope that these lessons would prevent these outrages in the future.

But, given the state of this country, I don't expect anything at all.

[gblady]

2. My heart breaks for these children

I was abandoned by my mother at age 3, lived in an orphanage 2 years, then adopted at age 5. I know that my situation was nothing like what these kids are going thru, but the scars of that childhood trauma are with me still at age 71, even with some very good therapy. I don't envy these kids trying to put their lives back together; these scars last a lifetime.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I think we're creating our next ms13 problem

[Skittles]

4. I was separated from my family for a year when I was 14

my dad was hospitalized and my mum could not take care of all of us......it's traumatic no matter what the circumstances but being detained has to be the worst