Childhood maltreatment is considered a risk factor for a wide variety of children’s negative outcomes and psychopathology, including conduct problems (Cicchetti and Lynch 1995). Experiencing physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse have repeatedly been associated with a wide variety of measures of children’s externalizing problems, including conduct problems, violence, and substance use (Beeghly and Cicchetti 1994; Widom 1989; Trickett and Kuczynski 1986; Gelles and Strauss 1990; Flisher et al. 1997; Hibbard et al. 1990; Kilpatrick and Saunders 1999; Erickson and Engeland 2002). Researchers have argued that since the questions of if and how much childhood maltreatment and other risk factors are associated with adverse developmental outcomes are answered, the emphasis should shift to how these processes work (Rutter et al. 1997; Schuck and Widom 2003).
