Research methodr and inferential techniqucs must acknowledgeDespite greatly increased public concern, funding, and scientific efforts directed toward child maltreatment during the past decade, we are still far from achieving an adequate understanding of this important problem. Even though heightened interest has been paid to maltreatment phenomena in this era of child advocacy and social policy, we possess only limited information about a number of issues that are central to the formulation of a truly integrative theory of the origins, intergenerational transmission, and sequelae of child maltreatment.