Negative Effects Of Family Separation On Mental Health

Family separation can have long-term effects on children, parents, and caregivers, even if the family is reunited. For some, time does not appear to heal these wounds. Understanding these impacts may be a step toward finding support and understanding after experiencing separation. 

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The effects of adverse childhood events

Research on the effects of family separation on mental health dates to studies done during World War II. Over the years, studies have looked at the impact of parental separation in various circumstances, including children in foster care, children in Romanian orphanages, and children of incarcerated parents. This research found that family separation can cause far-reaching negative mental health effects into adulthood.

Functional impairment 

Childhood trauma can disrupt neurological development and negatively affect emotional, social, and cognitive functioning. Children who experience trauma may have sleeping difficulties and heightened fear responses. They may cry, cling to a trusted adult, or exhibit aggressive behavior. Regression is also common, which occurs when children revert to an earlier stage of child development.

Traumatic stress 

From 2017 to 2018, the United States government separated more than 5,000 children from their parents through its immigration policies and placed them into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services under Title 42 of the Public Health Services Act. Research by the group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) studied the effects of this on the children separated from their parents and brought into the US.

PHR research found that the effects of these separations on children and their parents were consistent with trauma and traumatic stress. Symptoms were present during separation and after the families were reunited. These symptoms included feelings of confusion, frequent crying, recurring nightmares, severely depressed mood, loss of appetite, and overwhelming anxiety. Some individuals reported physical symptoms like shortness of breath and headaches, as well as mental and emotional despair, hopelessness, and despondency.

Immigration and family separation 

Research from the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants confirmed how harmful certain policies were for families and their impact on poor mental health. Seventy-three mothers of separated children and 425 mothers who were detained with their children in detention centers were surveyed for this research, aimed at assessing the behaviors of children and determining the prevalence of trauma. The results included the following findings:  

• Compared to the baseline US child population, detained children had twice as many severe emotional or behavioral difficulties; separated children had three times as many.
• Compared to the baseline US child population, detained adolescents had PTSD at a 3.5 times higher rate.
• Separating children from parents caused trauma to the child, no matter how long the separation was. 

Another study analyzed clinical assessments for 31 individuals separated from their families. This review found that children were typically separated from their parents without an explanation of why, where their family members were being sent, and if or how they would be reunited. Other results of this study were as follows: 

• Of parents who experienced family separation, 88% showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The rest of the participants showed signs of trauma that did not reach the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.
• All children in the study had symptoms of either generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, or PTSD. 
• Both parents and children continued to have significant psychological distress and functional impairment years after the study. 

Family separation can affect everyone in the family 

Research indicates that early and middle childhood are critical periods of development for children and that they can be affected by family separation more profoundly in these age groups. Young or school-aged children may experience heightened fear responses, sleeping problems, or aggressive behavior and revert to earlier developmental stages behaviorally. 

Separation from parents can significantly impact adolescents, too. Stressors during this time can have lasting impacts, which can be cumulative. For teens who have faced previous challenges, family separation can lead to further negative consequences, some of which may not become evident until adulthood. 

Parents who were separated from their children at the border of the US and Mexico displayed multiple symptoms of trauma. Common signs reported included fatigue, lethargy, poor concentration, bouts of anxiety, depression, panic attacks, racing heart rate, and vague physical symptoms. Some individuals reported having suicidal thoughts when separated from their children.

Long-term effects of family separation on immigrants and asylum seekers

Children depend on their primary caretakers to help them navigate challenges and stressful and traumatic experiences. Being with their primary caretaker can significantly reduce these responses to stress, acting as a buffer to protect them from emotional and physical harm. Family separation causes trauma due to the separation and takes away the child’s buffer, leaving them to deal with the trauma without their primary caretaker, which can have long-term effects on their mental health. If a child doesn’t understand what’s happening, they may dissociate or become frightened. 

Research has examined the long-term effects of children being separated from their families in this way. For example, immigrant children kept in shelters may be at increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. Some researchers determined that the effect of family separation was “on par with beating and torture in terms of its relationship to mental health.”

These experiences may also create irreversible changes in the brain. The above studies show that those who spend their first year of life in an institution have lower volumes in the prefrontal cortex. These changes could lead to trouble with executive tasks, inhibition control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. 

Parental separation engages a “strong and prolonged activation of the body’s stress-management system,” changing how the body responds to stress in the long term. Stressors this extreme can significantly impact children's health, leading to mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as obesity, lower IQ, cancer, stroke, heart and lung disease, and impaired immune system functioning and physical growth.

Navigate lingering impacts of trauma with professional support

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Support options 

Untreated trauma from family separation can have long-lasting physical and mental health effects on all separated family members, both children and adults. Recovery from trauma is possible, but it often benefits from strong family and social support, avoidance of retraumatization, and mental and behavioral health interventions.  

If you are an adult who has experienced trauma and is interested in therapy, it can be difficult to find in-person support options that fit your schedule and budget. In these cases, an online therapy platform like BetterHelp may be more accessible. Online platforms allow clients to work with a qualified, licensed mental health professional from the comfort of their home at a time that suits their schedule. In addition, clients can switch their therapist until they find the right fit. 

In addition to being convenient and flexible, research shows that online therapy is effective. One review concluded that internet-delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy offers numerous benefits for the patient and practitioner and “yields better outcomes.”