Data were collected from a sample of 198 elementary school-age maltreated children and their mothers. All the mothers were the children’s primary caretakers, and, except for eight families, all were the children’s biological mothers. Different approaches to assessing the effects of maltreatment type were used to examine the following four questions: 1) do maltreatment characteristics differ by type of maltreatment; 2) are maltreatment characteristics interrelated; 3) do relationships between maltreatment characteristics and child behavioral functioning differ according to type of maltreatment; and 4) do maltreatment characteristics have independent effects on child behavioral functioning. Three types of maltreatment groups (physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse) were compared on maltreatment characteristics. Analysis of the data showed that the type of maltreatment subgroups differed on nearly all characteristics of maltreatment experiences. In addition, the relationships between severity and other maltreatment characteristics depended on the type of maltreatment. Correlations between maltreatment characteristics and outcome measures for the sample as a whole obscured findings that relationships were often specific to particular types of maltreatment. Further research is recommended to examine the role of maltreatment characteristics in children’s behavioral functioning separately for each form of maltreatment. References and 4 tables