Abstract
Childhood maltreatment is associated with increased risk of psychopathology, cognitive dysfunction, and impaired relationships, including parenting difficulties. In addition, according to recent studies, the consequences of childhood maltreatment may extend to the next generation. Difficulties with executive function have been linked to both child maltreatment and parenting, but rarely to both simultaneously. The purpose of this review is to propose a model examining executive function as a likely candidate for linking the distal factors of child maltreatment to parenting and subsequent child outcomes and to highlight relevant data for components of the model. This work may suggest new opportunities for targeting executive function as a viable target for interventions in the prevention of the transmission of risk.