The effects of maltreatment on the development of young children

Abstract

Her school performance is extremely erratic. One day she does fine and the next day she can't seem to do anything. Then she usually becomes frustrated and ends up tearing up the work she did the day before. Her behavior is an enormous problem for everyone in the school. One minute she is sweet and loving, holding my hand, and the next minute she is screaming and throwing things. I have never seen such anger! She is a bomb ready to explode! – Teacher's description of a 6-year-old victim of maltreatment Although harsh treatment and inadequate care of children has a long history, widespread recognition of child maltreatment as a social problem, and particularly recognition of the lasting psychological consequences of maltreatment, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Parenting practices that today are recognized as abusive actually were accepted as standard practice and, in fact, were recommended by childrearing “experts” as recently as the late 1930s. Historians of childrearing trends (e.g., DeMause, 1974; Newson and Newson, 1974) describe open advocacy of child beating into the eighteenth century and continued recommendation of harsh, swift discipline well into this century. Not only was physical punishment advocated, but parents were counseled to behave in ways that today would be considered neglectful of the child's basic psychological and physical needs. For example, in 1928 Watson warned mothers against “mawkish, sentimental” handling of their babies. If a baby cried she or he should not be picked up; crying did not hurt the baby, but only hurt the parent to listen. An infant was expected to be quiet, obedient, and to submit early on to firm parental control (Newson and Newson, 1974).