), a situation in which "a person's position in the ecological environment is altered as the result of a change in role, setting, or both" (p. 26). Although traumatic for both Carrie and her mother, this ecological transition should prove to be an important, positive step in the development of both individuals.
Nevertheless, Carrie is very much at risk, and extensive work will need to be done to assure her ability to reach a point of healthy functioning. Carrie has adapted to her abusive situation in ways that are clinically understandable but that, if continued, will impair her ability to respond and react in socially acceptable and emotionally satisfying ways. L. Alan Sroufe (1997) notes that this process is natural and comprehensible:
Behavioral and emotional disturbance is viewed as a developmental construction, reflecting a succession of adaptations that evolve over time in accord with the same principles that govern normal development. Just as a personality or the emergence of competence involves a progressive, dynamic unfolding in which prior adaptat
...