Significant advances have occurred in our knowledge of the effects of maltreatment on thedevelopmental process since the “battered child syndrome” (Kempe, Silverman,Steele, Droegemueller, & Silver, 1962) was first identified. In fact, during the mid-1980s andonward, the quality and methodological sophistication of investigations of the developmentalsequelae of child maltreatment increased dramatically (for summaries, see Cicchetti & Lynch,1995, and Cicchetti & Toth, 2000). However, overall progress has been hampered by a lackof consensus on the operationalization of the construct of child maltreatment (Barnett, Manly,& Cicchetti, 1993; Besharov, 1981; Cicchetti & Rizley, 1981; Giovannoni &Becerra, 1979). In recognition of the complexities accompanying definitional issues in the area ofmaltreatment, a decade ago a Special Issue of Development and Psychopathology wasdevoted to defining psychological maltreatment (Cicchetti, 1991). The challenges associated withdefining maltreatment were again highlighted in a Special Issue of Development andPsychopathology that addressed advances and challenges in the study of the sequelae ofchild maltreatment (Cicchetti, 1994a). In the editorial to that issue, Cicchetti (1994b) concludedthat “the lack of consensus regarding the definition of maltreatment employed by variousinvestigators [had] made comparability across studies difficult to achieve” (p.2).