This longitudinal study employed an ecological-transactional model to better understand how caregiver, family system, and neighborhood factors contribute to child maltreatment. The study was designed to examine whether there were caregiver, family system, and environmental risk factors that distinguished children who have experienced maltreatment from children who have not, and whether these risk factors alone and in concert affected later child psychological development. Participants included 1,435 children and their families who were followed longitudinally when the children were ages 0-3, 4, 6 and 8. Two models of the relationship between child maltreatment, caregiver social support, family functioning and later psychological functioning were examined: 1) an independent path model that examined caregiver social support and family functioning at age 6 and their effects on child psychological well-being at age 6 and 8 and 2) a meditational model that examined the additional path of family functioning as a partial mediator of age 4 maltreatment status and age 8 child psychological well-being. The independent path model was determined to be a better fit. Research and clinical implications of the influence of environmental factors on the occurrence of child maltreatment and child psychological well-being are discussed
