How Belsky’s Model of Child Abuse Has Transformed Scientific Understanding, Clinical Practice, and Public Policy
The history of child maltreatment recognition and response is reviewed. Although Henry Kempe’s identification of the battered child syndrome in 1962 brought the previously unrecognized problem into public view, public policy in the 1970s continued to focus on after-the-fact remedies that did not lower the population rate of abuse. It was Jay Belsky who placed the problem of child abuse into multilevel context, enabling novel approaches to prevention and promotion. Belsky’s ecological model, articulated in three seminal publications spanning the 1980s, enabled the creation of innovative home-visiting programs to support families in early life to promote infant development and prevent child abuse. These programs are reviewed, particularly the universal Family Connects approach. The ultimate implication of Belsky’s theoretical contribution is the framework for a universal Preventive System of Care.
