The groups included in the current study included two samples of hospitalized alcoholics, a general community sample, and an otherwise unselected sample consisting of relatives of alcoholics, felons, and medical controls. Lifetime psychiatric diagnoses were made using either DSM-III criteria or according to the Feighner criteria for antisocial personality disorder (ASP), panic disorder, bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Lifetime rates of self-reported child abuse ranged between 9.3 percent and 2.6 percent among the groups. For alcoholics, the rate of ASP was higher among abusers, but depression was not elevated. Drug abuse and panic disorder were elevated among child abusers from the "controlled drinking" sample but not among the family study probands. A history of school suspension or expulsion was reported more frequently by abusers in all four groups. A history of running away, juvenile delinquency, sexual promiscuity, and marital infidelity were also reported more frequently among various subsets of abusers. 5 tables and 29 references