The sequelae of child maltreatment

While interest, efforts, and funding in the area of child maltreatment research have grown rapidly in the past two decades, research has yet to provide a fully accurate understanding of the etiology, intergenerational transmission, and consequences of child maltreatment. The Harvard Child Maltreatment Project (HCMP) was initiated in 1979 in an effort to integrate the rich history of child maltreatment research with current theoretical and empirical advances in developmental psychopathology. This chapter describes the historical context, guiding assumptions, and recent findings of the HCMP.