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Parental Deportation and Child Wellbeing: A Dual-Strand Scoping Review of Psychological Evidence and Legal Frameworks
Richi MQ, Khan M ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view ·Key points
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Abstract
Millions of children worldwide live with the fear or reality of a parent being detained or deported, yet the psychologists who study the mental health impacts and the legal experts who handle immigration laws rarely communicate. To bridge this gap, a scoping review was conducted to map out how parental separation affects a child's behavior, development, and mental health, while also analyzing how legal frameworks, like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, actually account for a child's welfare during enforcement decisions. By tracking two separate streams of research, the authors analyzed medical and social science databases to find 57 relevant studies on child well-being, and legal databases to gather 41 papers on immigration law. Ultimately, the review combines these 98 sources to highlight the disconnect between law and psychology, identifying crucial gaps where legal systems fail to align with the actual developmental needs of affected children.