Editorial: Operationalizing child maltreatment: Developmental processes and outcomes

Significant advances have occurred in our knowledge of the effects of maltreatment on the developmental process since the “battered child syndrome” (Kempe, Silverman, Steele, Droegemueller, Besharov, 1981; Cicchetti Giovannoni & Becerra, 1979). In recognition of the complexities accompanying definitional issues in the area of maltreatment, a decade ago a Special Issue of Development and Psychopathology was devoted to defining psychological maltreatment (Cicchetti, 1991). The challenges associated with defining maltreatment were again highlighted in a Special Issue of Development and Psychopathology that addressed advances and challenges in the study of the sequelae of child maltreatment (Cicchetti, 1994a). In the editorial to that issue, Cicchetti (1994b) concluded that “the lack of consensus regarding the definition of maltreatment employed by various investigators had made comparability across studies difficult to achieve” (p. 2).