Methodological Issues in Research on Physical Child Abuse

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Abstract
Considerable effort has been expended over the past 2 decades to advance our knowledge of the causes and cures for child abuse. Although important gains have been made, unfortunately the knowledge base that guides our policies and interventions in the area of physical child abuse still reflects an abundance of clinical folklore and/or research that is seriously methodologically flawed. Many inconsistent and contradictory research findings exist which simply cannot be reconciled because of the many differences in samples, methods, and definitions of independent and dependent variables that characterize studies in this area. These methodological issues are highlighted, with some suggestions for improving the scientific quality of future studies.