All of the participants were undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university, with an average age of 19.2 years. Most of the women were White (91.8 percent), and the remainder were African-American (1.0 percent), Hispanic-American (1.5 percent), Asian-American (2.0 percent), and foreign exchange students (2.6 percent). The Childhood Experiences Form was used to assess each participant's possible past experiences with childhood physical and sexual abuse. The Assessment of Childhood Memories Form was developed for this study in order to identify significant memories from childhood. The Assessment of Recent Stressor Form solicited information on recent stressful events. The College Adjustment Scales was used to measure overall adjustment as well as adjustment on these specific scales: anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, self-esteem problems, interpersonal problems, family problems, academic problems, and career problems. Discriminant functions analyses of the data showed a variety of significant differences between the groups in the use of strategies for coping with memories of abuse or another type of childhood stressor. There was no relationship between childhood history of abuse and the manner in which the women coped with a current stressor. Women with an abuse history reported significantly poorer adult psychological and social adjustment than did nonabused women. Different coping strategies were predictive of adjustment for abused and nonabused women. The abused groups had lower scores on social support seeking and self-isolating and higher scores on self-blaming and wishful thinking when dealing with childhood memories, as well as higher scores on self-isolating tendencies when dealing with current stressors. For the no-abuse group, poorer adjustment was associated with higher scores on self-isolating and self-blaming when dealing with childhood memories and higher scores on emphasizing the positive and wishful thinking when dealing with current stressors. 6 tables and 59 references