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. © 2015 American Orthopsychiatric Association.

Mental health Refugees Immigration detention Children

personal experience social behavior ethnographic research helplessness refugee detention camp human Refugees daily life activity Life Change Events life event detention Stress, Psychological mental stress social interaction participant observation child behavior qualitative research family study interview asylum seeker psychological well being Young Adult school child Humans psychology Adolescent Interviews as Topic Canada Infant, Newborn preschool child male Infant Child, Preschool newborn child psychology semi structured interview female Parent-Child Relations Article emotion adult migration posttraumatic stress disorder distress syndrome Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic Emigration and Immigration criminal behavior child parent relation Child