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By means of a specially designed variation of the Thematic Apperception Test, comprising six pictures which emphasize various aspects of relationships between parents and children, between siblings, and between the family and strangers, the emotional attitudes toward the family of three groups of children were studied. One hundred and ten children between the ages of six and twelve, matched for age and IQ, were included. The results, tested as far as possible for the statistical significance of group differences, bear out expectations derived from clinical experience. The normal children were more realistic, integrated, conventional, optimistically and constructively oriented with respect to human relationships, more self-assertive and less fearful, free to acknowledge some ambivalence in important relationships, and relatively balanced in their centrifugal and centripetal orientation to the family group. The neurotic children were more unrealistic, sado-masochistic, fearful, and suspicious in their orientation toward their parents, siblings, and strangers, and unconsciously primarily centripetal in orientation toward the family group. The delinquent children were unconsciously primarily centrifugal in orientation to the family group; they resembled the neurotic children in their unrealistic outlook but showed an increased emphasis on the badness of children and the severity of punishment and rejection by the parents. They tended, however, to deny the hostility of the children toward parents and siblings. They also tended to feel shut out and isolated, and differed significantly from the neurotic children in their generally greater detachment in interpersonal relationships. Other dynamic