The child actively adapts to the trauma and is not necessarily a passive recipient as in the psychopathological model in which a disease agent (stressor) activates an illness state (behavioral response). Six studies are discussed which examined childhood sexual abuse from developmental, coping, and ecological perspectives. The variables studied included 1) reliability over time of the child's report of abuse-specific variables, 2) relationship of abuse-specific variables to the dependent variables of Internalizing, Externalizing, and Sexual Problems, 3) behavioral differences between young, sexually-abused boys and conduct-disordered boys, 4) comparisons among sexually-abused children, children from an outpatient psychiatry sample, and a normal, non-abused nonpsychiatric sample. Relationships in the family unit are discussed as factors in the family's adaptation to sexual trauma. 2 figures, 3 tables, 36 references.