Child Abuse : Implications for Child Development and Psychopathology

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Summary: Child abuse. Implications for child development
Review: This is the second edition of a small, but important book on the implications of child abuse for child development and psychopathology. It is written by David A Wolfe, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. He has been very active in the field of child abuse and neglect with several books to his name, like 'Children of battered women', 'Preventing physical and emotional abuse of children', 'Alternatives to violence' and 'Abnormal child psychology'. This book is part of the Sage Series on 'Developmental Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry' prepared by experts in clinical child psychiatry, psychology, development and related disciplines. The focus is on the diagnosis, assesment, treatment and prevention of problems in developmental psychopathology that arise in the period from infancy through adolescence. The book is devided into six chapters: What is child maltreatment ?, Normal and abnormal child rearing patterns, A developmental perspective of the abused child, Unraveling the causes with theory, background and multidimentional influences and the last chapter on Prevention and treatment strategies. Since the first edition of this book (1987) there has been an explosion in child abuse research and therefore also more knowledge and background to understand the mechanisms involved. This is taken into account in this book, but also the fact that the author in the meantime had three children of his own has made this book very important for professionals working with abused and neglected children.