Results of this study revealed that black adolescents scored significantly higher on the CAP than nonabusing adult parents. The difference was attributed to age rather than education or race factors. A history of abuse was related to ones' potential for child abuse. The abused group scored significantly higher than the nonabuse group regarding distress, problems with family, and problems with others. An analysis of the relationship between type of abuse and the CAP score revealed significant differences between those who had been sexually abused only and those who had not been abused. A comparison of adolescents who reported witnessing violence in their home with those who reported no such history revealed a significantly higher total CAP score for the former group than for the latter group. Moreover, adolescents who witnessed violence scored significantly higher than adolescents with no such history on the CAP factors of distress, rigidity, unhappiness, problems with family, and problems with others. These results indicate that adolescents score differently on the CAP than do nonabusing adults and that both a history of witnessing violence and a history of being abused are related significantly to child abuse potential. 1 table and 34 references (Author abstract modified)