Hands on barbed wire fence

U.S. News & World Report: Keeping Migrant Kids in Detention Centers and Shelters Can Damage Them

Child running behind fence

Separating migrant children from their parents and placing them in detention centers and shelters could result in long-term negative health effects, according to a recent article published by U.S. News & World Report. University of Maryland College of Education professor Nathan Fox weighed in on the issue.

“What most institutions are missing is interaction, the ability for an infant or a child to interact with an adult caregiver, so if they’re upset, the adult caregiver can respond in a warm and reassuring way,” Dr. Fox said to U.S. News & World Report. Neglect in institutions leads to negative consequences for cognitive, social and emotional development, according to Dr. Fox.

Dr. Fox is the director of the Child Development Laboratory and a distinguished professor in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. His research focuses on temperament, development of emotion and emotion regulation, developmental psychophysiology and infant cognitive/social development.