About your children

The impact of family separation on children can easily be overlooked, but they will often become anxious, fearful, confused and sad. Separation interrupts their normal development. However, children who are helped to cope with the changes that are happening around them will, over time, adjust and settle.

Research has shown that the factors that can be most detrimental to children are losing a relationship with one of their parents, being exposed to ongoing parental hostility, ineffective parental boundaries, feeling pressured to take sides and choose between their parents and being drawn in to an adult role and expected to meet their parents’ emotional needs. You can learn more about how to support your children through the changes that come with separation in this section.