Understanding Child Maltreatment: An Ecological and Developmental Perspective

Child maltreatment professionals from all disciplines struggle to find better ways of understanding and treating the families and children affected by child maltreatment. Since the mid-1960's, the "battered child syndrome," and recent high-profile abuse cases, a plethora or research and literature on child maltreatment has emerged, yet thesis the first volume to offer a comprehensive integrated analysis for understanding, assessing, and treating child maltreatment within the ecological framework in a developmental context. This framework systematically organizes and integrates the complex empirical literature in child maltreatment and development, including the often over-looked period of adolescence. Viewing child maltreatment from an ecological perspective, this volume identifies the risk and protective factors correlated with abuse and neglect. The authors present a comprehensive assessment framework, addressing the multiple developmental and environmental factors unique to each case. This framework fully considers risk and protective factors and their relationship to individuals, families, and environmental elements, presenting a much-needed perspective for today's child protective services workers. Understanding Child Maltreatment is the first book of its kind; while most books broadly address the developmental consequences of maltreatment, this book goes further by proposing assessment and intervention strategies based on a deep understanding of each stage of a child's development. Interventions center on the caregiver and the family, with particular attention to parenting skills and the challenges the child may experience within his or her developmental stage. Each chapter emphasizes empirically based interventions and includes a case illustration that guides perspective on maltreatment, this book will be invaluable to students, researchers, and professionals.

"This book is an excellent resource for the classroom and for anyone working with or for abused children. The authors draw not only from traditional theories of development, but also from cutting-edge literature on attachment, risk/resilience, and brain development. By combining this developmental framework with an ecological perspective that recognizes the critical interactions of the child with her or his family and larger environment, the authors' presentation is holistic, exhaustive, and theoretically and empirically grounded. This book will be a valuable addition to the professional's library." --Rebecca Bolen, Ph.D., College of Social Work, University of Tennessee

"Finally, a resource is available that explains child maltreatment in way that makes sense and informs diagnosis and treatment. Understanding Child Maltreatment presents a cogent and well-constructed format to decipher the complexities of child maltreatment and offer solutions for intervening at various developmental stages. The exercises sprinkled throughout the book are quite helpful for applying the content to each developmental stage and will facilitate the transfer of knowledge from the book to real life experiences. I heartily recommend this book and think the authors did an outstanding job of presenting complex information in a useful manner. Caseworkers, counselors, and students will all find this book quite beneficial for both practical and academic purposes and it should become a staple for every child welfare library." -Charmaine R. Brittain, MSW, Ph.D., American Humane Association

"Understanding Child Maltreatment, by Maria Scannapieco and Kelli Connell-Carrick, is a valuable resource for a diverse array of professionals interested in learning about the history, etiology, and treatment of child maltreatment.It provides a detailed overview of the history of child maltreatment that will appeal to academics as well as specific information needed by those in the field providing services to these families. The authors provide a fascinating perspective on utilizing an ecological framework to determine how services should be delivered to families affected by abuse."--Child Maltreatment

"This book is an excellent resource for the classroom and for anyone working with or for abused children. The authors draw not only from traditional theories of development, but also from cutting-edge literature on attachment, risk/resilience, and brain development. By combining this developmental framework with an ecological perspective that recognizes the critical interactions of the child with her or his family and larger environment, the authors' presentation is holistic, exhaustive, and theoretically and empirically grounded. This book will be a valuable addition to the professional's library." --Rebecca Bolen, Ph.D., College of Social Work, University of Tennessee

"Finally, a resource is available that explains child maltreatment in way that makes sense and informs diagnosis and treatment. Understanding Child Maltreatment presents a cogent and well-constructed format to decipher the complexities of child maltreatment and offer solutions for intervening at various developmental stages. The exercises sprinkled throughout the book are quite helpful for applying the content to each developmental stage and will facilitate the transfer of knowledge from the book to real life experiences. I heartily recommend this book and think the authors did an outstanding job of presenting complex information in a useful manner. Caseworkers, counselors, and students will all find this book quite beneficial for both practical and academic purposes and it should become a staple for every child welfare library." --Charmaine R. Brittain, MSW, Ph.D., American Humane Association

"Understanding Child Maltreatment, by Maria Scannapieco and Kelli Connell-Carrick, is a valuable resource for a diverse array of professionals interested in learning about the history, etiology, and treatment of child maltreatment.It provides a detailed overview of the history of child maltreatment that will appeal to academics as well as specific information needed by those in the field providing services to these families. The authors provide a fascinating perspective on utilizing an ecological framework to determine how services should be delivered to families affected by abuse."--Child Maltreatment

..".a valuable addition to the child welfare practitioners or educators bookshelf. This book can also be used as a quick reference source given encyclopedic style compilation of the maltreatment literature. Child welfare practitioners, particularly those who do assessments, would find the authors practice guides to be useful and easy to digest. The book would also be an excellent text for a graduate course in child welfare. It is both specific enough to give students specific guides for practice, and its survey like approach would familiarize students with historic, policy, and human behavior issues in child welfare."--Families in Society