Bidirectional violence was not associated with low adolescent self-esteem. The majority of students lived in intact families; their mean age was 15. No significant sex differences were found on the self-esteem scales and the violence measures. A causal model, incorporating eight hypotheses, was developed to explain the relationships among self-esteem and the extremes of family cohesion, enmeshment, or disengagement. Survey results failed to support several hypotheses. No positive relationship between family violence and both enmeshment and disengagement was found. The hypothesized negative relationship between enmeshment and self-esteem and disengagement and self-esteem was found only between self-esteem and disengagement. A caring quality that may have been imparted by the enmeshment could account for the unanticipated positive relationship between enmeshment and self-esteem; only when enmeshment interacted with parental violence was self-esteem negatively affected. Additional studies of violent couples and unidirectional and bidirectional violence are needed. Figures, the survey instrument, and a 56-item bibliography are provided.