Abstract
The study intends to establish the victims’ experiences of separation and resultant trauma. It analyzes the internal and external events of individuals separated from their families, home, and familiar environment following the war. Experiences such as fear, confusion, anger, hopelessness, and pain and their physical manifestations in the behavioral patterns of the victims, such as aggressive behaviors and poor academic performance, are analyzed. Using the qualitative research method and IPA strategy in particular, the study interviews two victims and subjects them to three open questions to obtain a comprehensive account of their experiences and trauma. According to the findings from the study, separation triggers various traumatic experiences among its victims. In addition, the events are felt differently depending on the age of the victims, with younger individuals suffering more than their senior colleagues. Besides, separation and trauma have both short-term and long-term impacts on the lives of the victims. The study can be recommended to organizations dealing with victims affected by separation.
Introduction
Generally, trauma is exposing an individual to dangerous events in which the victim experiences fear, hopelessness, or horrific feelings. Separation, however, refers to the forceful eviction from home and familiar environment or voluntary and involuntary isolation from family members or friends. In the research context, separation can be defined as the alienation of a child or adult from family, friends, home, or the familiar environment due to reasons such as death, war, or any other calamity. While separations are always considered lightly by the active players (parents and war agents), their lasting impact is felt by the direct victims. Taking a young individual or adult from family, friends, or a familiar environment to some new surroundings would trigger trauma and horrible experiences whose impacts may be long-lasting (Ford-Gilboe et al., 2023). Younger persons taken from their parents tend to exhibit problems in their growth in terms of behavioral and emotional patterns.
Separation triggers trauma and horrible experiences for adults and younger individuals. Even though these victims normally lack where and to whom to express their problems, a kin follow-up on them shows a change in behavioral and emotional patterns characterized by a negative impact on their mental and physical health (Spaas et al., 2022). Trauma that results from the separation of individuals from their families, friends, and homes through war or the death of parents occurs in two phases (Švorcová, 2023). Long-term impacts manifest in the later years of their life and short-term, affecting them immediately after the event. Whether long-term or short-term, the trauma caused by separation and the following experiences has adverse effects on the general life of the victims.
The experiences of separation and trauma may follow younger victims into their academic and social life, exposing them to new lifestyles. Some lifestyles, such as drug abuse, violence, aggression, and bullying, are synonymous with these children (Einhorn, Shamri-Zeevi, & Honig, 2023). The trauma and horrible experience after the act of alienation from the caregiving parents or familiar environment may drive them into obscenity, where they end up abusing some substance and other unpopular immoral behaviors (Itakura, 2023). Besides, the academic life of the victims is not spared as their general school performance may start to dwindle and take a downward trajectory and, even worse, end up dropping out of school.
Literature Review
Several studies done about the experience of separation and trauma have proven that young people suffer more compared to their adult counterparts. Past research has shown that children alienated from both or one of their parents due to cases such as war, divorce, or involuntary separation tend to exhibit behavioral and emotional patterns, which are common among traumatized individuals. The physical and mental health of the victims is adversely affected, leaving them vulnerable to trauma-related lifestyles such as fear, drug abuse, and other depressive behaviors such as aggression caused by the feeling of neglect (Ehrkamp, Loyd, & Secor, 2022). Previous examinations conducted on the academic performance of children who are victims of separation showed a trend of poor scores, which can be attributed to the traumatic experiences that resulted from the same. The children exhibited dismal performance in school activities compared to their counterparts, who enjoyed their parents’ company. Going through the ranking, the victims of separation were on the lower margin of performance.
More importantly, trauma directly affects the victims’ neural system and brain, which alters their behavior and emotional sensations. Einhorn et al. (2023) research on relational trauma resulting from sexual abuse and separation from the guardian finds strong correlations between the disrupted neural pathways connecting the cortex and amygdala and the patient’s delayed emotional responses. This finding justifies why 7% of females develop post-traumatic symptoms, including avoidance and intrusions (Fondren, Lawson, Speidel, McDonnell, & Valentino, 2020). Since the traumatic event affects the hippocampus, separation changes the cognitive and emotional background of its victims.
Researchers associate immoral lifestyles with the negative impacts of separation. Compared to their fellows, younger victims were found to exhibit aggressive behaviors and were constantly involved in violence and school fights. The previous studies demonstrated that the affected kids had difficulty controlling their emotions which subjected them to regular fights with their colleagues at slight provocations, as well as facing forms of bullying and stigmatization from their colleagues (Namli, Özbay, & Tamam, 2022). As a result of separation and the subsequent traumas, the children became emotionally weak and aggressive in their thoughts and perceptions, triggering violent personalities.
While the exact trigger of these children’s aggressive behaviors is unclear, past studies associate the aggression with the kids’ poor emotional health after separation, especially among children who had a strong emotional attachment to the alienated parent. For instance, a case where a child was firmly attached to the mother and forced to live without the female parent after separation (Namli et al., 2022). Similarly, teenagers who have been separated from their families and forced to live in an unfamiliar environment are likely to experience emotional torture, which may trigger aggressive behaviors.
In addition to acts of aggression and poor academic performances, earlier examinations disclosed that young victims of separation and subsequent trauma are engaging in immoral behaviors such as sexual promiscuity and drug abuse (Malvaso et al., 2021). Most school-going children involved in these habits have a history of separation in their childhood or later years of growth. Various studies show that children resort to illicit drugs such as bhang and cocaine, among others, to make up for the missing parents. In other instances, some children are so gravely affected by the separation that they become hopeless and sink into drug abuse.
The impact of experiences of separation and related traumas affects the victims in stages, with each phase having a distinct manifestation. Victims of different ages are affected variably, with those at tender ages suffering the most because their ability to withstand and manage the absence of family members or adapt to a new environment is weaker. However, older people who can slightly manage the absence of their parents or adapt to new, unfamiliar environments are moderately affected. It is proven by Ford-Gilboe et al. (2023) research, where women with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and chronic pain after the separation from their partner show improved symptoms in four years (see Appendix A). Nevertheless, all victims suffer from post-traumatic stress associated with separation.
Psychologists argue that emotional disorders such as antisocial disorder evident among school-going children are usually associated with the feeling of neglect and extreme fear of the unknown. Furthermore, the likeliness of a victim to resort to irresponsible behaviors such as drug abuse is dependent on the victim’s age during the separation, with those whose alienation occurred at early ages becoming more vulnerable. Although numerous studies have been done in the past, there remain several areas to be explored in future research, especially on the separation prompted by war circumstances.
Methods
Having listened to and analyzed the prerecorded conversation of the participants through their oral history, IPA qualitative method qualifies as the best type for assessing this type of data. Even though it is not a commonly applicable method, it will provide the opportunity to explore the experiences of the victims that will participate in the research. In particular, the study will employ the IPA strategy during the qualitative analysis and data collection to get to the depth of the issue and obtain the actual experiences of victims of separation and related traumas. This method will be the most suitable because it is versatile and thus can be used on many victims.
The IPA strategy of qualitative data collection and analysis will facilitate an in-depth assessment of the situation and give a comprehensive result for the study. By using open questions, the technique will allow for the collection of enough information. The unstructured questions provided by the IPA will enable the respondents in the study to give a comprehensive account of their experiences and subsequent trauma. Besides, the application employs samples in research, thus, appropriate for a large population. In addition, this particular technique is suitable for use in this study because some data can be collected by simple observation. The research took into consideration the ethical concerns during the study and followed strictly the ethical guidelines, such as seeking the consent of the participants and safeguarding their confidentiality by keeping them anonymous.
For this study, two participants, Clive and Phyliss, war victims of separation, were interviewed to obtain their experience after the event of alienation. While Clive was separated from his family and taken as a soldier at the tender age of 19, Phyliss, on the other hand, was isolated from her parents as a casualty of war.
- What was it like losing or rather being separated from your parent?
- What was the general feeling in your destinations?
- What was the perception of the people around you towards you and your situation?
Analysis of Conversations
Clive
Clive was living in Jersey with his parents before the war. However, after the conflict, he separated and joined the war at just 19 as a volunteer and was taken to fight in Dunkirk, France. He was frightened and constantly lived in fear during his period away from home. Faced bullying from his colleagues who peed and pooed in his box. Become traumatized by the memories from his experiences in the army, such as the deaths of colleagues and combatant enemies he killed. Clive became emotionally depressed from missing his parents. Figure 1 below depicts the key themes of Clive’s experience.
Themes
- Emotions – Emotional depression from missing his parents.
- Trauma – Memories of the experiences of the war, such as the death of colleagues and personal sufferings, including injuries.
- Fear – Frightened and constantly fearing in the new environment with new colleagues. Bullying by mates in the military
Phyllis
Phyllis was isolated from the family at a very young age and joined an orphanage. This affected her performance in school, rendering her academically poor and spoiling her dream of becoming a doctor. The individual was not warmly welcomed by her new colleagues, forcing her to wear a face mask to avoid a series of humiliations. Generally, Phyllis had an awful experience living away from her family. Figure 2 below indicates key themes Phyllis experienced.
Themes
Fear – lived in fear and had to be dressed in a face mask to avoid stigma and embarrassment.
Emotion – Wrote a letter to her mum citing her unhappiness and sad feelings in her new environment.
Trauma – Childhood traumas in an unfriendly environment characterized by stigmatization and bullying.
Findings
The study discovered numerous traumatic experiences associated with separation. The victims in the study were confirmed to have developed trauma-associated feelings such as hopelessness, fear, neglect, hostility, and anger after the separation. One of the affected confessed to having undergone a series of hopeless phases in his life and dealing with the recurring feeling of neglect. Similarly, another victim, Phyliss, confirmed the existence of neglect in the first stages of life after separation from the parent. According to her confession, the anger was motivated by the feeling of neglect, having to live far from home in a hostile environment without parents.
Another traumatic experience found by the study, as was confirmed by the victim, was fear. The participant narrated how she had to live in fear after separation from her parents. Phyliss, separated from both parents and taken into an unfamiliar circumstance after the war, narrated how she had difficulty coping with the new environment as she constantly feared for her life. At the same time, the two victims who partook in the interview complained of confusion which rocked their lives immediately after they faced separation from their parents. As reported by Clive, it took him some time to rise from the +confusion and get his life in order. Immediately he separated from his family to join the war.
The study also linked aggressive behaviors with the trauma of separation. According to the accounts from the affected, most victims who had joined them in the camp in a similar circumstance had a habit of subjecting them to torturous actions such as bullying and violent fights. Citing behaviors from colleagues in the same environment, she emphasized that most victims were caught up in cases of bullying and physical fights with their fellows, either being victims or perpetrators of violence or bullying acts. Explaining the phenomenon, the victim Phyliss said that these colleagues were emotionally disturbed and engaged in the said fights to relieve their stress. The act of separation left them with endless unbearable pain, making them ever angry and extremely temperamental, triggering their aggressive behaviors. For some, behaviors such as bullying are motivated by the desire to inflict pain on others in an attempt to equalize the pain. Since they are experiencing endless pain by staying in a new, unfamiliar environment without parents, they are determined to share the pain and thus subject their colleagues to bullying.
Irresponsible behaviors such as drug abuse, promiscuity, and excessive alcohol consumption are other experiences cited by the study in relation to separation trauma. As confirmed by Clive, drug abuse is a common experience among victims of separation. Even though most victims observed a high level of secrecy, he could witness it among military colleagues. The participant who confessed to abusing substances such as bhang and cocaine linked his drug abuse to his separation from his family and the feeling of neglect. According to his narration, he began abusing the drugs mentioned above immediately and was taken from his family after entering the war as a child soldier. Going into a new, unfamiliar circumstance, he had to practice using drugs to cope with the situation and ease the emotional pain that followed the separation. According to his confession, the drugs were purely for easing the pain and helping overcome the emotional torture that resulted from the alienation. In addition, irresponsible behaviors such as promiscuity and excessive alcohol consumption can be attributed to hopelessness.
Poor academic performance and school dropout are other experiences found by the research linked to separation trauma. Based on the study’s findings, separation trauma plays a significant role in influencing the overall academic performance of children in school (Fondren et al., 2020). According to one victim, most students who are victims of separation do not exhibit good performance in school in terms of academic scores. Compared with their counterparts, the victims perform dismally, with some dropping out of school completely.
Discussion
Separation of children or adults from their familiar environments and familiar partners such as parents, marriage partners, friends, and siblings may negatively impact the victims’ physical and mental health. Among the triggers of traumatic experiences in individuals, separation is one of the major contributing factors (Malvaso et al., 2021). Victims of separation who have been alienated from families for reasons such as war and death are vulnerable to traumatic experiences such as anger, neglect, confusion, emotional pain, hopelessness, and fear.
Although these research findings do not explicitly outline the long-term effects of separation caused by political conflicts, victims’ experience hints at the continuous impact. Since there are short-term and long-term effects of post-traumatic stress on the lives of the victims, epigenetics is considered the most extended, affecting multiple generations (Bielik-Robson, 2022). Švorcová (2023) illustrates it through the pregnant mother with external stress triggers, whose fetus is affected simultaneously, meaning that children also experience trauma (see Appendix B). Other consequences include aggressive use, promiscuity, and poor academic performance (Bao, DeAngelis, & Wu, 2022). It is worth noting that separation trauma affects the victims differently depending on their age, with those at the lower age margin suffering more than their senior counterparts. Children of tender ages are severely affected by separation from their families and home, exposing them to uncountable horrific experiences such as bullying, physical fights, and general hostility.
On the other hand, victims of senior ages are mildly affected by separation and undergo moderate experiences and trauma since they can easily withstand and manage the impact and emotional torture that result from the same. This renders them less vulnerable and impacts them little (Sidamon‐Eristoff, Cohodes, Gee, & Peña, 2022). In the same vein, the observable impacts of separation, including sentimental acts such as tears exhibited by some victims, are simply physical manifestations of poor mental health and the emotional suffering they undergo (Jawaid, Gomolka, & Timmer, 2022). A victim is likely to portray aggressive behaviors as a result of pain, anger, fear, and confusion, thus, resorting to aggression as a way of ease (Mercado, Morales, Torres, & Palomin, 2022). Similarly, poor academic performances are evidence of emotional instability and restlessness caused by the impact of separation, preventing the victims from concentrating (Dreby, 2022). An emotionally disturbed individual cannot put a competitive performance in class. On the other hand, irresponsible behaviors are symptoms of hopelessness and confusion.
Conclusion
Separation is a trauma trigger for victims who are left to nurse traumatic experiences such as fear, confusion, anger, pain, and hopelessness, among other displeasing feelings which show emotional distress. It can take many forms, such as children being alienated from their parents due to war or being isolated by hostile parents, or even kids taken to other new, unfamiliar environments far from home. Regardless of its form, the victims are affected negatively, especially in their physical and mental health. Similarly, separation is characterized by numerous horrible experiences that vary depending on the victim’s age, with younger individuals affected severely.
References
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Appendices
Appendix A
Research findings include mean scores for post-traumatic stress, depression, and chronic pain over four years (Ford-Gilboe et al., 2023).
Appendix B
Three generations are simultaneously affected when a pregnant woman experiences traumatizing event (Švorcová, 2023).
