The parental discipline style characterized as "psychologically assaulting" involved attempts to change childhood behaviors by demeaning the worth of the child because of her behaviors that were unacceptable to the parent. Such disciplinary measures were related to the women's current experience of depression and anxiety. The severity of current depression and anxiety was not as great, however, among women who had been physically disciplined as children. Mothers' styles of discipline were related to each of the outcomes in the study; whereas, fathers' style of discipline was related only to the levels of depression experienced by the women. This may be due to the fact that mothers tend to spend more time with their children and adolescents than fathers. Generally, the perceptions that the women had of their mothers and fathers were related to the types of disciplinary interactions they recalled from their childhood. Whether the perceptions were negative or positive generally depended on the extent to which the discipline lowered the child's self-esteem and increased fear of the parents. The study used instruments that measured types of childhood discipline used by mothers and fathers, perceptions of parents, the emotional availability of the parents, depression, anxiety, and self-esteem. 4 tables and 27 references