ABSTRACT
Chapter Three explored four basic theoretical ways of looking at child neglect, including its causes and consequences. The parental deficiencies model, generated by psychoanalytic theory, suggests that there are specific parent and familial attributes that account for the differences between families who neglect their children and those who do not. These characteristics, considered to be causal, are passed from parent to child, and thus perpetuate neglectful behavior across generations of families. Interventions are, therefore, aimed at the remediation of these attributes and breaking the intergenerational cycle of neglect. Demographic variables are considered neither necessary nor sufficient to explain why families maltreat their children and, while not ignored, are accorded a secondary role.
