"How to Turn Children Into Criminals" By Margaret A. Sheridan and Charles A. Nelson (NYT)
"Administration Actions Against Immigrant Families Harming Children Through Increased Fear, Loss of Needed Assistance" by by D. Trisi & G. Herrera (CBPP)
"Separating children from parents at the border isn’t just cruel. It’s torture." by J. Juvonen and J. Silvers (WP)
American Academy of Pediatrics statement on the detention of immigrant children. Pediatrics (2017) 139(5).
The following list of empirical research was curated with the help of Dr. Dylan Gee (Yale University), Dr. Jennifer Honeycutt (Northeastern University), Dr. Amanda Kentner(Northeastern University), and Dr. Kaitlin Flannery (Northeastern University).
Socioemotional development
Gonzalez, A., Lovic, V., Ward, G.r., Wainwright, P.E., Fleming, A.S. (2001). Intergenerational effects of complete maternal deprivation and replacement stimulation on maternal behavior and emotionality in female rats. Developmental Psychobiology, 38, 11-32.
James S.M. Rusby & Fiona Tasker (2008) Childhood temporary separation: long-term effects of the British evacuation of children during World War 2 on older adults' attachment styles, Attachment & Human Development, 10:2, 207-221
Melo, A.I., Lovic, V., Gonzalez, A., Madden, M., Sinopoli, K., Fleming, A.S. (2006). Maternal and littermate deprivation disrupts maternal behavior and social-learning of food preference in adulthood: tactile stimulation, nest odor, and social rearing prevent these effects. Developmental Psychobiology, 48, 209-219.
Tottenham, N., Hare, T. A., Quinn, B. T., McCarry, T. W., Nurse, M., Gilhooly, T., … Casey, B. (2010). Prolonged institutional rearing is associated with atypically larger amygdala volume and difficulties in emotion regulation. Developmental Science, 13(1), 46.
Burkholder AR, Koss KJ, Hostinar CE, Johnson AE, Gunnar MR.(2016). Early Life Stress: Effects on the Regulation of Anxiety Expression in Children and Adolescents. Soc Dev. 2016 Nov;25(4):777-793. doi: 10.1111/sode.12170.
Liu, Z., Li, X., & Ge, X. (2009). Left Too Early: The Effects of Age at Separation From Parents on Chinese Rural Children’s Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression. American Journal of Public Health, 99(11), 2049–2054.
Lawler JM, Koss KJ, Doyle CM, Gunnar MR. (2016). The course of early disinhibited social engagement among post-institutionalized adopted children. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2016 Oct;57(10):1126-34. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12606.
Leussis, M. P., Freund, N., Brenhouse, H. C., Thompson, B. S., & Andersen, S. L. (2012). Depressive-Like Behavior in Adolescents after Maternal Separation: Sex Differences, Controllability, and GABA. Developmental Neuroscience, 34(2-3), 210–217.
Kumsta R, Schlotz W, Golm D, Moser D, Kennedy M, Knights N, Kreppner J, Maughan B, Rutter M, Sonuga-Barke E. (2017). HPA axis dysregulation in adult adoptees twenty years after severe institutional deprivationin childhood. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 86:196-202. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.09.021.
Wickramage, K., Siriwardhana, C., Vidanapathirana, P., Weerawarna, S., Jayasekara, B., Pannala, G., … Sumathipala, A. (2015). Risk of mental health and nutritional problems for left-behind children of international labor migrants. BMC Psychiatry, 15, 39.
Silvers, JA, Goff, B., Gabard-Durnam, LJ, Gee, DG, Fareri, DS, Caldera, C., & Tottenham, N. (2017). Vigilance, the Amygdala, and Anxiety in Youths with a History of Institutional Care. Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 2(6), 493-501.
Jensen, P. S., & Shaw, J. A. (1996). The effects of war and parental deployment upon children and adolescents. In Emotional aftermath of the Persian Gulf War: Veterans, families, communities, and nations (pp. 83–109). Arlington, VA, US: American Psychiatric Association.
Klaus, M. H. and K. (1976). Maternal-Infant Bonding: The Impact of Early Separation or Loss on Family Development.
Levine, S., Johnson, D. F., & Gonzalez, C. A. (1985). Behavioral and hormonal responses to separation in infant rhesus monkeys and mothers. Behavioral Neuroscience, 99(3), 399–410.
Reite, M. (2012). The Psychobiology of Attachment and Separation. Elsevier.
Rutter, M. (1971). Parent-Child Separation: Psychological Effects on the Children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 12(4), 233–260. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1971.tb01086.x
Bentall, R. P., Wickham, S., Shevlin, M., & Varese, F. (2012). Do Specific Early-Life Adversities Lead to Specific Symptoms of Psychosis? A Study from the 2007 The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 38(4), 734–740.
Gorman, G. H., Eide, M., & Hisle-Gorman, E. (2010). Wartime Military Deployment and Increased Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Health Complaints. Pediatrics, 126(6), 1058–1066. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2009-2856
Moeller, J. D., Culler, E. D., Hamilton, M. D., Aronson, K. R., & Perkins, D. F. (2015). The effects of military-connected parental absence on the behavioural and academic functioning of children: a literature review. Journal of Children's Services, 10(3), 291-306.
Shinichi Iwasaki, Koki Inoue, Nobuo Kiriike, Katsuhito Hikiji, Effect of maternal separation on feeding behavior of rats in later life, Physiology & Behavior, Volume 70, Issue 5, 2000, 551-556,
Szilvia Csóka, Péter Simor, Gábor Szabó, Mária S. Kopp & Róbert Bódizs (2011) Early maternal separation, nightmares, and bad dreams: Results from the Hungarostudy Epidemiological Panel, Attachment & Human Development, 13:2, 125-140
Applewhite, L. W., & Mays, R. A. (1996). Parent-child separation: A comparison of maternally and paternally separated children in military families. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 13(1), 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01876593
Heilala, C., & Santavirta, N. (2016). Unveiling the War Child Syndrome: Finnish War Children’s Experiences of the Evacuation to Sweden During WWII from a Lifetime Perspective. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 21(6), 575–588. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2016.1161425
Nicolson, N. A. (2004). Childhood parental loss and cortisol levels in adult men. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 29(8), 1012–1018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2003.09.005
Johnson, S. B., Riley, A. W., Granger, D. A., & Riis, J. (2013). The science of early life toxic stress for pediatric practice and advocacy. Pediatrics, 131(2), 319-327.
Wiese, E. B. P. (2010). Culture and migration: Psychological trauma in children and adolescents. Traumatology, 16(4), 142.
Green, J. G., McLaughlin, K. A., Berglund, P. A., Gruber, M. J., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C. (2010). Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) I: Associations with first onset of DSM-IV disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(2), 113.
Raposa, E. B., Hammen, C. L., Brennan, P. A., O’Callaghan, F., & Najman, J. M. (2014). Early Adversity and Health Outcomes in Young Adulthood: The Role of Ongoing Stress. Health Psychology : Official Journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 33(5), 410–418.
McLaughlin, K., Koenen, K., Bromet, E., Karam, E., Liu, H., Petukhova, M., . . . Kessler, R. (2017). Childhood adversities and post-traumatic stress disorder: Evidence for stress sensitisation in the World Mental Health Surveys. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 211(5), 280-288.
Neurological & Physiological Development
Ackerman, S. H., Keller, S. E., Schleifer, S. J., Shindledecker, R. D., Camerino, M., Hofer, M. A., … Stein, M. (1988). Premature maternal separation and lymphocyte function. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 2(2), 161–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-1591(88)90016-5
Pesonen, Anu-Katriina et al. (2010). Childhood separation experience predicts HPA axis hormonal responses in late adulthood: A natural experiment of World War II. Psychoneuroendocrinology , Volume 35 , Issue 5 , 758 - 767
Koss, K.J., Mliner, S.B., Donzella, B., Gunnar, M.R. (2016). Early adversity, hypocortisolism, and behavior problems at school entry: a study of internationally adopted children. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 66, 31-38.
Kumsta R, Schlotz W, Golm D, Moser D, Kennedy M, Knights N, Kreppner J, Maughan B, Rutter M, Sonuga-Barke E. (2017). HPA axis dysregulation in adult adoptees twenty years after severe institutional deprivationin childhood. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 86:196-202. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.09.021.
Hodel AS, Hunt RH, Cowell RA, Van Den Heuvel SE, Gunnar MR, Thomas KM. (2015). Duration of early adversity and structural brain development in post-institutionalized adolescents. Neuroimage. 2015 Jan 15;105:112-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.10.020.
Sheridan MA, Fox NA, Zeanah CH, McLaughlin KA, Nelson CA 3rd. (2012). Variation in neural development as a result of exposure to institutionalization early in childhood. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Aug 7;109(32):12927-32. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1200041109
Brenhouse, H. C., Lukkes, J. L., & Andersen, S. L. (2013). Early Life Adversity Alters the Developmental Profiles of Addiction-Related Prefrontal Cortex Circuitry . Brain Sciences, 3(1), 143–158.
Tottenham, N., Hare, T. A., Millner, A., Gilhooly, T., Zevin, J., & Casey, B. J. (2011). Elevated Amygdala Response to Faces Following Early Deprivation. Developmental Science, 14(2), 190–204.
Gee, D. G., Gabard-Durnam, L. J., Flannery, J., Goff, B., Humphreys, K. L., Telzer, E. H., … Tottenham, N. (2013). Early developmental emergence of human amygdala–prefrontal connectivity after maternal deprivation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(39), 15638–15643.
Fareri, D., Gabard-Durnam, L., Goff, B., Flannery, J., Gee, D., Lumian, D., . . . Tottenham, N. (2017). Altered ventral striatal–medial prefrontal cortex resting-state connectivity mediates adolescent social problems after early institutional care. Development and Psychopathology, 29(5), 1865-1876.
Elwenspoek MMC, Sias K, Hengesch X, Schaan VK, Leenen FAD, Adams P, Mériaux SB, Schmitz S, Bonnemberger F, Ewen A, Schächinger H, Vögele C, Muller CP, Turner JD. T cell immunosenescence after early life adversity: Association with cytomegalovirus infection. Frontiers Immunology, 8:1263.
Bock, J., Riedel, A., & Braun, K. (2012). Differential changes of metabolic brain activity and interregional functional coupling in prefronto-limbic pathways during different stress conditions: functional imaging in freely behaving rodent pups. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2012.00019
Callaghan, B. L., Sullivan, R. M., Howell, B., & Tottenham, N. (2014). The International Society for Developmental Psychobiology Sackler Symposium: Early adversity and the maturation of emotion circuits - a cross-species analysis. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(8), 1635–1650. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21260
Fries, A. B. W., Shirtcliff, E. A., & Pollak, S. D. (2008). Neuroendocrine dysregulation following early social deprivation in children. Developmental Psychobiology, 50(6), 588–599. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.20319
Koss, K. J., Hostinar, C. E., Donzella, B., & Gunnar, M. R. (2014). Social deprivation and the HPA axis in early development. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 50, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.07.028
Kumari, M., Head, J., Bartley, M., Stansfeld, S., & Kivimaki, M. (2013). Maternal separation in childhood and diurnal cortisol patterns in mid-life: findings from the Whitehall II study. Psychological Medicine, 43(3), 633–643. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291712001353
Laudenslager, M. L., Reite, M., & Harbeck, R. J. (1982). Suppressed immune response in infant monkeys associated with maternal separation. Behavioral and Neural Biology, 36(1), 40–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-1047(82)90223-0
Marshall PJ, Fox NA (2004) Acomparison of the electroencephalogram between institutionalized and community children in Romania. J Cogn Neurosci 168:1327–1338.
Malter Cohen, M., Jing, D., Yang, R. R., Tottenham, N., Lee, F. S., & Casey, B. J. (2013). Early-life stress has persistent effects on amygdala function and development in mice and humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(45), 18274–18278. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1310163110
Nishi, M., Horii-Hayashi, N., & Sasagawa, T. (2014). Effects of early life adverse experiences on the brain: implications from maternal separation models in rodents. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00166
Plotsky, P. M., Thrivikraman, K. V., Nemeroff, C. B., Caldji, C., Sharma, S., & Meaney, M. J. (2005). Long-term consequences of neonatal rearing on central corticotropin-releasing factor systems in adult male rat offspring. Neuropsychopharmacology: Official Publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 30(12), 2192–2204. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1300769
Rilling, J. K., Winslow, J. T., O’Brien, D., Gutman, D. A., Hoffman, J. M., & Kilts, C. D. (2001). Neural correlates of maternal separation in rhesus monkeys. Biological Psychiatry, 49(2), 146–157.
Tottenham, N., Hare, T. A., Millner, A., Gilhooly, T., Zevin, J., & Casey, B. J. (2011). Elevated Amygdala Response to Faces Following Early Deprivation. Developmental Science, 14(2), 190–204. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.00971.x
De Bellis, M. D., & Zisk, A. (2014). The biological effects of childhood trauma. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, 23(2), 185-222.
Marshall PJ, Fox NA (2004) Acomparison of the electroencephalogram between institutionalized and community children in Romania. J Cogn Neurosci 168:1327–1338.
Sabatini, M. J., Ebert, P., Lewis, D. A., Levitt, P., Cameron, J. L., & Mirnics, K. (2007). Amygdala gene expression correlates of social behavior in monkeys experiencing maternal separation. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 27(12), 3295–3304. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4765-06.2007
Nelson CA 3rd, Zeanah CH, Fox NA, Marshall PJ, Smyke AT, Guthrie D. (2007). Cognitive recovery in socially deprived young children: the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Science, 318(5858):1937-40.
Grassi-Oliveira, R., Jennifer A, H. J., Holland, F. H., Ganguly, P., & Brenhouse, H. C. (2016). Cognitive impairment effects of early life stress in adolescents can be predicted with early biomarkers: Impacts of sex, experience, and cytokines. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 71, 19–30.
Aisa, B., Tordera, R., Lasheras, B., Río, J. D., & Ramírez, M. J. (2007). Cognitive impairment associated to HPA axis hyperactivity after maternal separation in rats. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 32(3), 256–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2006.12.013
Csóka, S., Simor, P., Szabó, G., Kopp, M. S., & Bódizs, R. (2011). Early maternal separation, nightmares, and bad dreams: Results from the Hungarostudy Epidemiological Panel. Attachment & Human Development, 13(2), 125–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2011.553991
Feng, X., Wang, L., Yang, S., Qin, D., Wang, J., Li, C., … Hu, X. (2011). Maternal separation produces lasting changes in cortisol and behavior in rhesus monkeys. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(34), 14312–14317. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1010943108
Gee, D. G. (2016). Sensitive Periods of Emotion Regulation: Influences of Parental Care on Frontoamygdala Circuitry and Plasticity. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2016(153), 87–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20166
Hofer, M. A. (1994). Early relationships as regulators of infant physiology and behavior. Acta Pædiatrica, 83, 9–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.1994.tb13260.x
Lippmann, M., Bress, A., Nemeroff, C. B., Plotsky, P. M., & Monteggia, L. M. (2007). Long-term behavioural and molecular alterations associated with maternal separation in rats. European Journal of Neuroscience, 25(10), 3091–3098. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05522.x
Litvin, Y., Tovote, P., Pentkowski, N. S., Zeyda, T., King, L. B., Vasconcellos, A. J., … Blanchard, R. J. (2010). Maternal separation modulates short-term behavioral and physiological indices of the stress response. Hormones and Behavior, 58(2), 241–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.03.010
Romeo, R. D., Mueller, A., Sisti, H. M., Ogawa, S., McEwen, B. S., & Brake, W. G. (2003). Anxiety and fear behaviors in adult male and female C57BL/6 mice are modulated by maternal separation. Hormones and Behavior, 43(5), 561–567. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0018-506X(03)00063-1
Pechtel, P., & Pizzagalli, D. A. (2011). Effects of Early Life Stress on Cognitive and Affective Function: An Integrated Review of Human Literature. Psychopharmacology, 214(1), 55–70.
Weiss, I. C., Franklin, T. B., Vizi, S., & Mansuy, I. M. (2011). Inheritable Effect of Unpredictable Maternal Separation on Behavioral Responses in Mice. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2011.00003
Non, A. L., Hollister, B. M., Humphreys, K. L., Childebayeva, A., Esteves, K., Zeanah, C. H., … Drury, S. S. (2016). DNA methylation at stress-related genes is associated with exposure to early life institutionalization. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 161(1), 84–93.