In two studies of fatal child abuse, the authors found that in about half of the cases there was clear evidence of childhood abuse, neglect, or rejection in the caretakers' histories. In adult life, these caretakers often displayed violence or criminality, domestic violence, threatening behavior toward professionals, problems of alcohol and/or drug misuse, and considerable ongoing difficulties in prioritizing their children's needs. Two core themes were apparent: tensions about being cared for and caring for others ("care" conflicts); and tensions about self-control, wishing to control others, and fearing control by them ("control" conflicts). Attachment theory describes an innate dynamic in which an infant, when faced with stress arising internally or externally, seeks proximity to a reliable parental figure, who in turn is expected to respond sensitively to the infant's needs and provide a secure base from which the infant can explore the world. Rejection of the child's attachment overtures may lead to anxiety and an internal working model of other people as unreliable, hostile, rejecting, or frightening. Bowlby (1988) has described abusive parents as typically yearning for care but expecting only rejection, because of childhood experiences of rejection, unreliable or hostile parenting, or threats of abandonment. Although critical of the lack of specificity in attachment theory, the authors recommend retaining "attachment" notions to refer to those early experiences of infancy that were based on the survival dynamic as originally described by Bowlby. Derivatives of these experiences may be manifest over subsequent years in the developing child's functioning and modes of relating and are likely to be reinforced by continuing adversity or modified by more reliable parenting experience. The concept of "unresolved care and control conflicts" could apply to more general aspects of relating, the origins of which may be in early attachment difficulties or in adversity later in the child's development. 59 references