Family factors associated with child abuse and neglect are discussed from an ecological perspective. Economic and cultural generative factors of child abuse are identified, thus situating the family system in its social context. Special circumstances affecting the occurrence of child maltreatment, such as parental youth and inexperience, parental discord and divorce, adoption, and problematic child attributes, are explored. Dimensions of responsiveness, demandingness, and parental authority patterns, which are commonly invoked to understand normal parent-child relations, are examined in their application to abusive families. The evidence for intergenerational transmission of abuse is also examined.
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