Viewing the overt aggressive behavior of delinquent acts as imitative learned behavior and as escape from painful affect, the researcher hypothesized that child victims of physical abuse would develop a lifestyle with more overt expression of aggression than would child victims of neglect. The sample consisted of 56 physically abused and 56 neglected first grade children in the foster homes of 5 public and voluntary agencies. Fifty percent of the abused children and 31 percent of the neglected children had been labeled as unmanageable and placed in a second foster home. Teachers described the abused children as underachievers, truants, fighters, and rebels against authority. The neglected children were described as underachievers and hostile to authority. The results of the administration of the Childhood Social Functioning Inventory indicated that the abused children had learned to cope with life in an overtly aggressive fashion. Furthermore, interviews with social workers and foster mothers in which an affective mood scale was used suggested that most of the foster children suffered depression as a result of placement; an interrelationship between aggression and depression appeared to be present. Finally, overt aggression was found to be related to being a victim of physical abuse, affective mood depressive themes, foster home placement, repeating first grade, fantasy depressive themes, and verbal depressive themes. The six treatment principles are based on the idea that the abused child's maladaptive aggressive/depressive stance must be changed to increase social effectiveness, to enhance sense of self, and to decrease violent action. A data table and a 22-item reference list are included.