The Human Ecology of Child Maltreatment: A Conceptual Model for Research

This paper seeks to place the phenomenon of child maltreatment in the perspective qf family development. While it is concerned with the problem of neglect, it addresses child abuse most directly. The paper focuses on necessary and sufficient conditions and the research implications of an ecological perspective. Maltreatment as a consequence qf stressful role transition is the major theme explored in the paper. The role of cultural support for the use of physical force against children, and the inadequacy and inadequate use of family support systems are two factors identified as necessary conditions for child maltreatment. The paper thus attempts to explicate a model of child maltreatment as a problem of family asynchrony-i.e., as a mismatch of parent to child and of family to neighborhood and community. The problem of child maltreatment is thus best understood as an issue in the study of the ecology qf family life, the development of the caregiver role and the provision of effective feedback for parents.