Separation experiences: a new look at an old topic

Abstract

Research findings on the effects of separation are reviewed. Children of working mothers develop as well as those whose mothers remain at home. The effects of day care for very young children depend very much on the quality of care provided. Admission to hospital is stressful for preschool children through separation from the family, lack of opportunity to form new attachments, a strange environment, and disturbed parent-child relationships on return home; recurrent hospital admissions may have long-term sequelae, especially in children under chronic stress. An institutional upbringing need not impair cognitive development, but multiple rotating caretakers are likely to interfere with social development. Broken homes are associated with psychiatric disorder only in so far as they reflect family discord and disharmony. Bereavement is most likely to lead to prolonged grief reactions in older children and adolescents. Forced separations of mother and infant in the neonatal period may damage parent-child relationships. Many mechanisms are involved in these different experiences, and in only a few is the separation itself the main stress.