The analysis focuses on four types of definitions and literatures. These include retrospective accounts of adults experiencing childhood trauma, long-term prospective studies of individuals traumatized as children, short-term prospective studies of children exposed to spousal violence, and studies of exposed children that bear on the accomplishment of developmental tasks. Overall, findings suggest that a central problem is disruption in the development of the affiliative system and internal representations of others when children are exposed to chronic violence and abuse. Findings indicate the need for large prospective studies of children exposed to different levels of adult domestic assault from both families living in the communities, and families in shelters. In addition, a large prospective study of ethnically and socioeconomically diverse community families in which children are studied from birth would be useful. Other research needs include a multidomain developmental assessments of children exposed to severe and repetitive spousal violence, research on the development and validation of instruments to assess which violence-supporting mechanisms are most crucial in different families and how to intervene when single or multiple mechanisms are involved, the development of valid trauma symptom screening devices; and physiologic, cognitive neurological, and imaging studies for children exposed to repetitive and severe parental violence. Finally, earlier prevention and intervention through incorporation of screening and assessment into highly used services may be able to save children and adults years of pain and developmental disappointment. 102 references