Kronick Rachel, Rousseau Cécile, Cleveland Janet
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Division of Social and Cultural Psychiatry, McGill University.
Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2015 May;85(3):287-94. doi: 10.1037/ort0000061.
Children and parents seeking asylum are regularly detained in Canada, however little is known about the experiences of detained families. International literature suggests that the detention of children is associated with significant morbidity. Our study aims to understand the experiences of detained children and families who have sought asylum in Canada by using a qualitative methodology that includes semistructured interviews and ethnographic participant observation. Detention appears to be a frightening experience of deprivation that leaves children feeling criminalized and helpless. Family separation further shatters children's sense of well-being. Children's emotional and behavioral responses to separation and to detention suggest that the experience is acutely stressful and, in some cases, traumatic--even when detention is brief. Distress and impairment may persist months after release. Given the burden of psychological suffering and the harmful consequences of separating families, children should not be detained for immigration reasons and parents should not be detained without children.
在加拿大，寻求庇护的儿童及其父母经常被拘留，然而，对于被拘留家庭的经历我们却知之甚少。国际文献表明，儿童被拘留与严重的发病率相关。我们的研究旨在通过采用包括半结构化访谈和民族志参与观察在内的定性方法，了解在加拿大寻求庇护的被拘留儿童及其家庭的经历。拘留似乎是一种可怕的剥夺体验，让孩子们感到被定罪且无助。家庭分离进一步摧毁了孩子们的幸福感。孩子们对分离和拘留的情绪及行为反应表明，这种经历极具压力，在某些情况下甚至是创伤性的——即使拘留时间很短。痛苦和损伤可能在获释数月后仍会持续。鉴于心理痛苦的负担以及家庭分离的有害后果，不应出于移民原因拘留儿童，也不应在没有孩子陪伴的情况下拘留父母。
