Attachment theory and family systems perspectives were used to explore the intergenerational origins of an overinvolved, symbiotic parenting pattern that hampers children's emerging autonomy. Consistent with principles of developmental psychopathology, the same underlying relationship disturbance was expected to manifest differently at different times in the developmental process. Specifically, links among maternal intrusiveness during infancy, overprotection during childhood, and mother-child role-reversal during young adulthood were explored. Forty-nine maternal grandmothers, mothers, and firstborn infants were visited in the mothers' homes when the infants were 6 and 9 months old. Grandmothers' memories of overprotection were related to observational ratings of high boundary dissolution and low positive affectivity with the mothers. No significant relationships were found between mothers' past and current relationships with the grandmothers. Yet, mothers' memories of overprotection during childhood or their current participation in unaffectionate, enmeshed, and role-reversed relationships with their mothers forecast their intrusive care with their own infants. Moreover, mothers' memories of overprotection related to their beliefs that others cannot be trusted and these beliefs were related, in turn, to observations of their intrusive care at 9 months. The implications of understanding the origins of maternal intrusiveness for developing prevention programs are discussed.

Broken bones, cigarette burns, and profound malnourishment are unambiguous signs of child maltreatment, but defining the causes and consequences of psychological maltreatment is a more challenging task. For child advocates who are concerned with optimizing the developmental potential of each youngster, defining psychological maltreatment is an essential first step, and McGee and Wolfe (1991) should be commended for undertaking such a challenging but necessary task.

McGee and Wolfe's (1991) article has emerged at a critical time, a period during which child abuse and neglect has been declared a national emergency. In the last decade, reports of child abuse have increased dramatically. Unfortunately, the resources available to address the needs of maltreated children have not kept pace with the demand. This distressing state of affairs has caused some social policy theorists to conclude that only the most seriously abused and neglected children should be identified and served so as not to weaken further an already fragile service delivery system (Besharov, 1988; Wald, 1975). In fact, in the absence of greatly enhanced resources, some child advocates have argued that intervention into family life in other than life threatening circumstances may prove to be more detrimental than helpful (Goldstein, Freud, & Solnit, 1979).

Over the past 30 years, hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars have been spent on research related to child maltreatment. Yet, with some notable exceptions, this research has produced disappointingly little information that is relevant to policy-makers. In part, this reflects the difficulty of doing policy-relevant research, a problem exacerbated by the unwillingness of most funding sources to support the types of large-scale research projects needed to answer many policy questions. However, part of the blame lies with the research community itself. Too often, researchers have failed to understand the policy issues at stake. As a result, they have not asked the right questions or utilized appropriate research designs. In fact, they often have failed to conceptualize adequately the questions they were trying to address.

Including our own (McGee & Wolfe, 1991), there are 13 articles in this volume on psychological maltreatment — and there appear to be 13 different opinions regarding the subject. Psychological maltreatment and its measurement are controversial topics. We were delighted that our article served to stimulate such thoughtful discussion. Unfortunately, there are several instances in the critiques where we were quoted out of context or our arguments were misconstrued. We do not have the space to deal with every such instance; rather, we will respond to the general themes arising from the articles. The first theme concerns the role of research on psychological maltreatment in the social policy process. The second theme deals with assumptions regarding measurement. We provide a brief description of our own research efforts in an effort to illustrate how we are dealing with the problems inherent in our definition.