environments characterized by exposure to traumatic events are probably also more likely to contain abusive individuals over time. Pre- vious research with younger adults has also noted the cyclical nature of violence as a risk factor for future violence.14 A methodological strength of our study was that mistreatment events were initially assessed independent of perpetrator status, thereby permitting a more accurate prevalence estimate derived from assessment of both stranger- and family-perpetrated mistreatment events; most previous research has focused on only 1 form of victimization per study, yielding an incom- plete picture. Interestingly, functional impair- ment in our respondents predicted only emo- tional and financial mistreatment. The greater need of some older adults for help and assis- tance in accomplishing everyday activities appeared to elicit verbal abusiveness and economic exploitation but not other forms of abuse. Thus, our findings provided only limited support for the long-standing belief that care- giver stress is a causative factor in mistreatment of the elderly.6,15–17 By contrast to previous research, our young- old respondents (aged