NFYI board chair, Wendy B. Smith Meyer, Ph.D., LCSW, a retired clinical professor of social work and associate dean of curriculum development and assessment at the University of Southern California, had the following published in Psychology Today:
“A sudden and prolonged separation has an incalculable impact on a child. Events that exceed our ability to cope cause unmanageable stress. The younger the children are, the less equipped they are to cope with stress on their own. The comfort and sense of safety that a trusted parent can provide is a critical buffer against the negative effects of stress. An abrupt, lasting separation from a parent constitutes extreme stress; an extra wallop comes from the fact that the very person the child would usually turn to for comfort is gone.
“Prolonged exposure to stress in the absence of a protective relationship causes the human stress response system to remain activated, preventing recovery and compromising the child’s ability to regain the sense of safety necessary to move forward in life. Anxiety and depression can arise as children lose hope for reunion with their absent loved one. It becomes hard to trust others and to engage freely in other relationships.
“Negative outcomes of disrupted attachments result from family separation policies, and they also appear in the lives of children who experience foster care and those in the juvenile justice system. Many former juvenile offenders whose stories are told in my book, Before Their Crimes: What We’re Misunderstanding About Childhood Trauma, Youth Crime, and the Path to Healing, lost a primary attachment figure early on. In most of their lives, these disruptions went unaddressed. Trang, whom I interviewed when he was 44 years old and was recently released after 26 years in prison, offers a poignant example of what it feels like when your family is torn apart.”