Infant abuse and neglect: lessons from the primate laboratory

We review the several areas in which research on nonhuman primates contributes to our understanding of child abuse and neglect in human children. One special advantage of primate studies is that the experimental method can be utilized to examine the short- and long-term effects of relatively well-defined and circumscribed alterations in early experience and the manner in which they can affect later behavioral and physiological development. Four studies in M. nemestrina (pigtail) monkeys are described in which relatively short social separation experiences in infancy were associated with evidence of persistent changes in certain aspects of social behavioral functioning and immunological functioning, up to six years later, when the previously separated animals were in late adolescence or early adulthood. Such findings suggest that nonhuman primates may be used as animal model systems with considerable relevance to issues surrounding human child abuse and neglect.