Approximately two-thirds of the children had been victims of child abuse, neglect, or both. Results indicated that both maltreated and nonmaltreated children exhibited maladaptive motivational orientations toward scholastic tasks and poor academic performance, supporting the view that risks to scholastic functioning reside as much within the ecology of poverty as in that of maltreatment. Beyond the general effects of poverty, maltreatment disrupted the psychological processes accounting for children's academic performance. Results revealed that younger maltreated children (ages 6 and 7) reported more inflated self- perceptions of competence and social acceptance than nonabused children. In contrast, older maltreated children (ages 8-11) reported lower perceived social acceptance than nonabused children. Among older nonabused children, perceived competence was positively related to teachers' ratings of their effort, intrinsic motivation, and grades. For older abused children, these relations among self- perceptions and school functioning were in the opposite direction from those of nonabused children, suggesting that the determinants of academic engagement are different for abused and nonabused children. Tables and 50 references (Author abstract modified)