Although the early experience animal data have been used to explain the sequelae of childhood physical and sexual abuse (e.g. Heim and Nemeroff, 2001), the animal models rest heavily on the lack or loss of expectable parental care. These models more closely approximate human conditions of deprivation and neglect than those of physical or sexual abuse. However, while animal models can be designed to focus on circumscribed types of ELS, human ELS is messier. Studies of children in the child welfare system, for example, note that it is rare to find children exposed to only one type of maltreatment. Especially for children under the age of five, physical and/or sexual abuse is typically accompanied by neglect, with neglect constituting the most frequent form of maltreatment for young children (chapter 5 in Barnett et al., 2005). Consistent with the human data, even in non-human primates, physical abuse tends to co-occur with high rates of maternal rejection and failure to protect the infant (McCormack et al., 2006). Moreover, when both the frequency of physical abuse and rejection are used to predict the
