Twenty-two families in which 33 adolescents were abused were clinically evaluated. The families fell into three groups: childhood onset familes in which the adolescents had also been abused in early childhood and whose parents had been abused as children; authoritarian families in which rigid parenting styles were characterized by a high degree of denial of family conflict; and overindulgent families in which a pattern of overly permissive parenting coupled with sporadic violent attempts at control seemed to be associated with an early loss of a parent. Implications for family-oriented treatment are discussed.