Child Maltreatment Theory and Research on the Causes and Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect

This important new volume provides a comprehensive account of the causes and consequences of child maltreatment from a developmental perspective. The chapters in the volume offer an historical and definitional context for future studies: What constitutes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse? What is child neglect and how has its definition changed over time? Why has the theory of the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment been overstated for so long? The heart of the volume lies in its careful description of well controlled research on the impact of maltreatment on the developmental process. Specific chapters address the effects of maltreatment on congitive, linguistic, social, and emotional development. Special attention is paid to age-specific deficits in social interaction, to parent-child interaction and attachment in the early years, and to peer relationships during later childhood and adolescence. The psychology of abusive and neglecting parents is also addressed. Who are the maltreating parents and how are they different from comparison parents? What are the conditions under which maltreatment recurs in subsequent generations? The volume concludes with a chapter on the processes at work in maltreatment can be applied to reducing the problem. Child Maltreatment will appeal to both researchers and clinicians in a range of disciplines including developmental and clinical psychology, psychiatry, social work, pediatrics, sociology, and law, as well as to policymakers and students in all of these areas.

Preface; Part I. History And Denfinition: 1. Definitional issues in child maltreatment; 2. Physical child abuse in America: past, present, and future; 3. Pediatrics and child abuse; 4. Sexual abuse of children: causes and consequences; 5. The intergenerational transmission of child abuse; Part II. Parental And Contextual Influences On Maltreatment: 6. Lessons from child abuse: the determinants of parenting; 7. The antecedents of maltreatment: results of the Mother-Child Interaction Research Project; 8. Parental attributions as moderators of affective communication to children at risk for physical abuse; 9. Perceived similarities and disagreements about childrearing practices in abusive and nonabusive families; 10. Cognitive foundations for parental care; 11. Intergenerational continuities and discontinuities in serious parenting difficulties; 12. The construct of empathy and the phenomenon of physical maltreatment of children; Part III. The Developmental Consequences Of Child Maltreatment: 13. How research on child maltreatment has informed the study of child development: perspectives from developmental psychopathology; 14. Child maltreatment and attachment theory; 15. Patterns of maternal behaviour among infants at risk for abuse: relations with infant attachment behaviour and infant development at 12 months of age; 16. Finding order in disorganization: lessons from research on maltreated infants' attachments to their caregivers; 17. Peer relations in maltreated children; 18. The effects of maltreatment on development during early childhood: recent studies and their theoretical, clinical and policy implications; 19. Social cognition in maltreated children; 20. The effects of maltreatment on the development of young children; 21. Troubled youth, troubled families: the dynamics of adolescent maltreatment; 22. Child abuse, delinquency, and violent criminality; 23. The prevention of maltreatment; Name index; Subject index.

This important new volume provides a comprehensive account of the causes and consequences of child maltreatment from a developmental perspective. The chapters in the volume offer an historical and definitional context for future studies: What constitutes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse? What is child neglect and how has its definition changed over time? Why has the theory of the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment been overstated for so long?