Child Abuse: An Overview of Alternative Models

Abstract

Progress in understanding any phenomenon is only as rapid as the adequacy of our conceptual models that serve to guide and organize our research efforts and our treatment programs. The purpose of this paper is to review and evaluate alternative approaches to understanding the problem of child abuse. A two-level social-interactional analysis of child abuse is offered as an alternative to the traditional personality-psychiatric approach. Abuse, it is argued, can best be understood, first by a detailed analysis of interaction patterns among family members, and second, by a recognition of the role that informal and formal community support systems play in modulating family interaction patterns.