Background
Earlier research split into psychiatric (parental pathology), sociological (poverty, stress) and child-characteristics explanations. In 1980 Belsky integrated them using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory.
Four levels
- Ontogenic: the parent's own developmental history, such as having been maltreated, limited knowledge of child development, depression.
- Microsystem: the family: marital conflict, the child's temperament, disability or prematurity, caregiving load.
- Exosystem: unemployment, financial strain, social isolation, weak community support.
- Macrosystem: cultural acceptance of corporal punishment and violence, and views of children as parental property.
Risk and protective factors
No single factor determines maltreatment; risk grows as factors accumulate and protective factors such as a supportive partner, social support and stable income are absent. Most parents who were maltreated do not maltreat their own children.
Ecological-transactional model
Cicchetti and Lynch (1993) added that potentiating and compensatory factors at each level interact over time to shape child development.
Implications
The model supports intervention at every level: parent education and home visiting, linking isolated families to support and income, and legal bans on corporal punishment. South Korea removed the parental disciplinary-right clause from its Civil Act in 2021.
References
- Belsky, J. (1980). Child maltreatment: An ecological integration. American Psychologist, 35(4), 320-335.
- Belsky, J. (1993). Etiology of child maltreatment: A developmental-ecological analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 114(3), 413-434.
- Cicchetti, D., & Lynch, M. (1993). Toward an ecological/transactional model of community violence and child maltreatment. Psychiatry, 56(1), 96-118.