The study findings indicate that children in the child welfare system are likely to be victims of multiple traumatic experiences; and these experiences had a direct relationship to the number of risk behaviors of the children. The study also found, however, that a child's strengths could moderate the relationship between trauma and risk behaviors. More strengths were associated with fewer risk behaviors across all levels of traumatic experiences and a diminished relationship between the amount of traumatic experiences and the likelihood that the child engaged in high-risk behavior. Thus, children's strengths hold promise for their overcoming the potentially negative impact of their adverse life experiences. These findings are consistent with other research in the trauma field. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services administered the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) to 8,131 children as they entered custody. CANS provided information on traumatic experiences, risk behavior, and strengths, using polychromous logistic regression models for data analysis. 6 tables, 2 figures, and 31 references