Abstract
Millions of children in the United States, and millions more around the world, experience some form of maltreatment. These experiences appear to have little or no effect on some children and they significantly impair the development of others. Although several programs to prevent physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect have been implemented over the past 20 years, there is no evidence that the incidence of child maltreatment has been reduced meaningfully. A variety of efforts to help children overcome the consequences of their maltreatment have been instituted; as noted later in this chapter, however, the effectiveness of these efforts has not been demonstrated clearly. In this chapter we review some of the literature on child maltreatment. We begin by discussing the research regarding the prevalence of child maltreatment and the consequences of maltreatment on children. We then explore ways in which these consequences might be ameliorated.
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Haugaard, J.J., Reppucci, N.D., Feerick, M.M. (1997). Children’s Coping with Maltreatment. In: Wolchik, S.A., Sandler, I.N. (eds) Handbook of Children’s Coping. Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2677-0_3
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