The survey inquired regarding how often respondents believe physical punishment of a child produces injury, how often repeated yelling and swearing at a child leads to long-term emotional problems for the child, how much an individual can do to prevent child abuse, and respondents' personal actions to prevent child abuse. The 1989 survey also added questions regarding respondent's beliefs about the acceptability of corporal punishment in the schools, whether schools should teach children self-protection from child abuse, and whether educational and support services designed to prevent child abuse should be made available to new parents. Additionally, the survey addresses parental behaviors toward children, including confining them to their rooms, swearing at or insulting children, and spanking and hitting them. One observation based on survey findings is that the public generally views the physical abuse of a child with greater urgency than emotional abuse. Yet they feel less capable of intervening in incidents of physical abuse than on occasions when parents verbally abuse their children. The report notes a danger that the public does not consider emotional abuse to be serious enough to be reported and that it will not report physical abuse unless there is evidence the child has been injured. 19 tables, sample profile, appended discussion of sampling error.