This set of studies was designed to examine the relational underpinnings of child abuse potential in a sample of 51 urban families. In Study 1, lower maternal differentiation of self-most notably, greater emotional reactivity and greater emotional cutoff-along with self-attacking introjects, together distinguished mothers at higher risk (vs. lower risk) for child maltreatment (CM). In Study 2, patterns of interactive rupture and repair were examined in a subsample of n = 15 families and found to vary as a function of risk for CM. Specifically, SASB coding (Benjamin, 1996(Benjamin, , 2003 of mother-children interactions during two moderately stressful lab tasks revealed higher rates of interactive mismatch and mother-initiated ruptures, and fewer successful repairs in families at higher-risk-for-CM, relative to families at lower-risk. Implications for counseling and directions for further translational research are discussed. KeywordsChild maltreatment; parenting; differentiation; SASB; relationship rupture Differentiation, self-other representations, and rupture-repair processes: Predicting child maltreatment-riskChild abuse affects almost 1 million children each year, and estimates indicate that roughly 80% of perpetrators are parents (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, & Families, 2006). The effects of CM constitute a serious public health problem in the United States, with both short and long-term adverse consequences for psychological, behavior, and social outcomes. CM is associated with alterations in fear-stress physiology and brain development (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000;Gunnar & Donzella, 2002), and impairments in self and emotion regulation (Rogosch, Correspondence may be sent to the first author in the Counseling Psychology Program, Department of Counselor Education, Counseling Psychology, and Rehabilitation Services, 330 Cedar Building, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16801-3110 or eas14@psu.eduM. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/pubs/journals/COU. NIH Public AccessAuthor Manuscript J Couns Psychol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 July 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript Cicchetti, & Aber, 1995) and school-readiness, with significant long-term consequences into adolescence and adulthood (e.g., NIMH, 2000; Kolko, 2002;Mulvihill, 2005;Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992).CM represents a complex, multi-determined phenomenon resulting from a constellation of risk factors present in the i...