The children and their nonabusing parents or caregivers were randomly assigned to contrasting treatment programs. The treatment focused on family members' allocating blame for the abuse appropriately, optimizing family relationships, and dealing with causes and effects of the abuse. Clinicians rated the children and the mothers on 12 family treatment goals before and after treatment; additional standardized measures were also used to assess behavior and mental status of the children and the mental status of the mothers. Results revealed that mothers made more significant progress than their children on the standardized measures in the year of treatment, but the type of treatment did not affect the progress made by the mothers or the children. In contrast, clinical ratings suggested that those following the additional group work made better progress than those following the treatment without group work. Tables and 24 references (Author abstract modified)