The researchers hypothesized that the three abuse groups would differ from the control group on the dependent measures and would also differ among themselves. The findings showed that subjects suffering from both physical and psychological abuse in their childhoods had a greater tendency toward depression than did the nonabused subjects or the subjects who had suffered only one type of abuse. Subjects who had suffered both types of abuse or only psychological abuse had lower self-esteem than the other groups, but none of the abused groups showed a more maladaptive attributional style than the control group. Psychological abuse was a better predictor of depression, self-esteem, and attributional style than physical abuse. The hypothesis that learned helplessness is related to levels of depression and self-esteem was supported directionally. Correlational analysis indicated that higher depression scores correlated negatively with higher self-esteem scores, that higher attributional scores correlated negatively with higher depression scores, and that higher self-esteem scores correlated positively with higher attributional style scores. 3 tables and 51 references