The participants were recruited through public announcements and direct mailings. In all families, both parents read and spoke English. In addition, both were the child's biological parents or the nonbiological parent had lived with the child since age 2. The parents completed written questionnaires and were verbally administered one questionnaire. The questionnaires focused on violence in the family of origin, violence in the marital and parental relationships, and current aggression among the 91 female and 90 male children ages 8-11. Regression analyses revealed that for males, exposure to violence was predictive of aggressive behavior across all three generations. For females, the only significant prediction was from marital aggression in the first generation to husband-to-wife marital aggression in the second generation. Findings point to the importance of examining both child abuse and marital aggression to assess their relative importance. Results also indicated the desirability of assessing the transmission of aggression separately for males and females, because the data produced different findings for males and females. Tables and 59 references (Author abstract modified)