The Hidden Cost of Conflict: The Children of ISIS

Based on the work of Nathan Brooks, Vaishnavi Honnavalli, and Briar Jacobson-Lang on children associated with ISIS, trauma, development, and rehabilitation.

For years, the public conversation about bringing Australians back from Kurdish-run detention camps in northeast Syria has primarily focused on the "ISIS brides." However, this attention often overshadows a more vulnerable group: the children. Many of these children were born during the caliphate or shortly after, and they have faced severe deprivation, violence, and exposure to extremist ideologies in camps like al-Roj and al-Hawl. As Australia considers additional repatriations, it is crucial to understand the significant psychological and neurobiological effects on these children, not only from a standpoint of compassion but also to develop effective, evidence-based policies.

These children are not accountable for the decisions made by their parents. They are blameless victims of situations characterised by ongoing instability, extremist leadership, grief, displacement, malnutrition, and constant insecurity. Many have seen family members die, endured the turmoil of conflict, and lived in overcrowded camps with insufficient healthcare, limited educational opportunities, and persistent violence. Australian families have recounted distressing incidents: young children collapsing due to malnutrition, suffering from frostbite, or exhibiting severe stunting and dental decay. Some children as young as seven have expressed suicidal thoughts.

War does not just shape memories. It rewires developing brains

Childhood represents a period of significant brain growth and organisation. Neural pathways responsible for emotional regulation, attachment formation, executive function including planning, impulse control and focus, empathy, language development, and social understanding form rapidly. These systems develop in direct response to a child’s environment and the quality of their relationships with caregivers.

In safe, nurturing settings, the brain organises around experiences of trust, exploration, and connection. This process builds strong foundations for lifelong resilience, flexible thinking, and healthy relationships. In the hazardous environments of ISIS territories and subsequent camps, the opposite occurs. Continuous threats, unpredictability, deprivation, and exposure to violence can force the brain into an extended state of survival mode.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the body’s central stress response system, becomes chronically overactive. Stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline remain elevated with little to no chance of respite and repair. Over time, this alters the architecture of the developing brain. Key changes often appear in the amygdala, showing heightened sensitivity to potential threats, the prefrontal cortex, where impulse control, decision-making, and emotional regulation can be impaired, and the hippocampus, which plays a central role in memory processing and learning.

Children in these conditions become neurologically primed to scan constantly for danger. This adaptation can lead to significant difficulties with emotional regulation, concentration, trust, and the ability to form secure relationships. Prolonged exposure increases risks of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, including intrusive memories, anxiety, depression, and externalising behaviours such as aggression or withdrawal. When substantial trauma occurs during these crucial periods of brain development, a framework referred to as Developmental Trauma Disorder can capture the intricate complexities and relational nature of this trauma, highlighting it's disruption of core developmental processes beyond the standard PTSD criteria.

Survival responses are often misunderstood

Traumatised children rarely present with simple, easily recognised signs of fear. Some shut down emotionally through protective numbing that shields them from further pain. Others become aggressive or strongly oppositional as they attempt to exert control in environments that have felt chaotic and dangerous. Social withdrawal, persistent hypervigilance, or repeating ideological phrases absorbed from their surroundings also appear frequently. These behaviours represent adaptive survival strategies developed in abnormal conditions rather than fixed character flaws or inevitable signs of radicalisation.

A child who has lived amid coercion and violence may struggle to interpret social cues accurately, regulate strong emotions, or experience empathy in typical ways. Trust can feel inherently dangerous after repeated relational disruptions. Without a trauma-informed perspective, adults may interpret these responses solely through a security lens. This approach risks increasing mistrust and alienation. A developmental understanding instead opens pathways toward healing by addressing the underlying causes of the behaviour.

Even in the most dire conditions, attachment remains the foundation.

Primary caregivers, often mothers, serve as the child’s primary emotional anchor. They help regulate stress responses and build an internal sense of safety. Even in highly adverse environments, this bond can provide critical continuity amid repeated loss and chaos. Abrupt separation upon repatriation carries substantial risks. It can create another traumatic rupture that deepens feelings of abandonment, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation, particularly for children who have already experienced multiple losses and prolonged instability. Careful, individualised risk assessments remain essential. However, maintaining family unity where safe, combined with comprehensive supports, frequently supports better recovery outcomes than automatic separation.

Lessons from Waco: Parallels with Dr. Bruce Perry’s Work

There are notable similarities to Dr. Bruce Perry's groundbreaking research after the 1993 Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas. Perry and his team assisted 21 children who were released from the compound. These children had undergone ideological indoctrination, fear, disrupted family dynamics, physical discipline, and the horror of a long armed standoff that concluded in a fire.

Perry observed many similar patterns. Some children appeared emotionally numb or showed blank affect. Others rocked compulsively, remained hypervigilant, or maintained secrecy about life inside the compound as a protective mechanism. Their brains had adapted to chronic threat and relational unpredictability, producing dysregulated stress responses and attachment difficulties.

Instead of immediately engaging in traditional talk therapy, Perry's team prioritised safety, structure, predictability, and relational consistency. They observed that the children naturally managed their own exposure to traumatic content. For example, a child might seek a quick hug from one caregiver or a brief moment of laughter with another, thereby controlling the timing and duration of these interactions. This self-regulation helped to gradually reduce their arousal levels. These observations were crucial in shaping Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics. This model, informed by neuroscience and developmental sequencing, starts by regulating the lower brain through rhythm, safety, and consistent caregiving, then moves to relational work, and finally addressing higher cognitive functions.

Many of the Waco children demonstrated meaningful recovery with this patient, relational, and non-coercive support. Perry’s observations showed that behaviours often misinterpreted as defiance or deep indoctrination were actually adaptive survival responses. They also highlighted the power of neuroplasticity. When children experience consistent safety and connection, significant healing becomes possible.

Recovery demands more than repatriation

Returning to Australia marks only the first step. True rehabilitation requires long-term, multidisciplinary support that includes trauma-informed psychological care addressing PTSD, Developmental Trauma Disorder, and complex grief. It also needs attachment-focused interventions, educational catch-up programmes, cultural reconnection, family supports, and ongoing developmental monitoring. Risk assessment should inform, rather than dominate, individualised plans that balance public safety with genuine opportunities for healing.

Security and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Assisting these children is an effective approach to harm reduction. Unaddressed trauma increases the likelihood of long-term mental health issues or vulnerability to further radicalisation. In contrast, responsive, evidence-based care promotes integration, belonging, and healthier futures that ultimately strengthen society as a whole.

Australia faces a pivotal choice. By grounding decisions in developmental science and lessons from cases such as Waco, we can fulfil both our moral obligations and our national security needs. These children carry heavy burdens from circumstances beyond their control. By practicing informed compassion, we can assist in easing that burden and aid in breaking cycles of violence.

Reference Brooks, N., Honnavalli, V., & Jacobson-Lang, B. (2022). Children of ISIS: Considerations regarding trauma, treatment and risk. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 29(1), 107–133.