Failures in the Expectable Environment and their Impact on Individual Development:

The Case of Child Maltreatment

Points for Discussion

• What is the “average expectable environment”?

• What is the “systems view” of individual development?

• Why is it difficult to operationally define child maltreatment?

Points for Discussion, cont.

• What is Belsky’s ecological model of child maltreatment?

• What are the types of risk and protective factors?

• What are the different levels in the ecological-transactional model of child maltreatment proposed by Cicchetti and Lynch?

Points for Discussion, cont.• Give some examples of the macrosystem that impact child maltreatment.

• What are some aspects of the exosystem associated with child maltreatment?

• The microsystem: how do researchers explain the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment?

what are some of the personal resources of maltreating parents? how would you characterize family dynamics among maltreating parents? what are typical parenting styles of abusive parents?

Points for Discussion, cont.

• What is meant by “ontogenetic development”?

• How are affect regulation and differentiation affected by maltreatment?

• How is attachment affected by maltreatment?

• How is the development of the self affected by maltreatment?