ILLUSTRATING THE INTERFACE OF FAMILY AND PEER RELATIONS THROUGH THE STUDY OF CHILD MALTREATMENT

The developmental study of social adaptation in maltreated children pr ovided the context for examining the linkages between family and peer relations. Participants included 115 school-age children; 59 were malt reated. Teachers and peers in the classrooms of the targeted children provided assessments of the social functioning of individual children. Mothers completed an assessment of their parenting practices. The res ults demonstrated that teachers perceived maltreated children, particu larly physically abused children, as lower in social competence and so cial acceptance and higher in externalizing behavior problems. Peers w ere more likely to actively withdraw from or reject maltreated childre n. Patterns of peer-perceived aggression and withdrawal were examined, and maltreated children who were both aggressive and withdrawn were p articularly deficient in social effectiveness. Maltreatment and parent ing practices were related to differences in social effectiveness. Con tinuities in relationship disturbance from families to peers were disc ussed.