Dar io Maestr ip ier i

infant maltreatment in monkeys and its public health implications. Studies of infant abuse and neglect in monkeys have used operational definitions based on (a) adult behavior or (b) adult behavior and infant outcome (depending ondata vailable for analysis). Direct comparisons between the incidence of maltreatment in monkey and human populations can be only tentative as a result of differences in operational definitions ofmaltreatment. A simplified version of the ecological-transactional model of maltreatment can be used in research with nonhuman primates, and different species can be used to model different aspects of the human phenomenon. Although abuse and neglect take different forms in animals and humans, research with animal models can make an important contribution to elucidating the adaptive function, ifany, of child maltreatment a d the proximate mechanisms underly-ing its occurrence. Despite the increased epidemiological estimates of child abuse and neglect and the growing body of evidence demonstrat-ing the negative developmental consequences of maltreatment, there seems to be a widespread belief among researchers and clinicians that the efforts currently being made to understan