Unrealistic expectations of parents who maltreat their children: an educational deficit that pertains to child development.

Forty-one parents estimated when their own child and an "average" child would attain a number of different developmental milestones. These milestones and the accompanying normative data were derived from the Vineland Social Maturity Scale (Doll, 1965). Parents were divided into three groups on the basis of a prior history of child abuse, child neglect, or no previous background of abuse or neglect. Results indicate that both the abuse and neglect groups differed from the comparison group when absolute difference scores from the normative data were analyzed. When directionality of scores were analyzed (i.e., too high or too low expectations for the child), no differences were found among the groups. Implications of an education deficit model of unrealistic parental expectations were discussed.