The sexually abused children were compared with 64 nonabused children from a psychiatric outpatient clinic and with 78 nonabused children from a well child clinic. The sexually abused child has been described as more fearful, anxious, depressed, and guilty in comparison to normal children but these descriptions are largely derived from clinical impressions and little systematic exploration of the nature and extent of behavior problems among these children. In this study, behavioral strengths and weaknesses in these children were examined by administering the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist to their mothers. Sexually abused children displayed a significantly greater number of behavior problems than normals but were not as significantly disturbed as the psychiatric outpatients. Caseworkers and therapists for the sexually abused child provided ratings of family conflict, cohesion, and support of the child and these were shown to be significantly related to the extent of behavior problems in the sexually abused children. This relationship equaled or exceeded the relationship of severity of sexual abuse to behavior problems. 4 tables and 12 references. (Author abstract modified)