I SHALL DESCRIBE FINDINGS MADE IN THE COURSE OF WORK WITH 75 families, including 100 children who had been afflicted with child abuse, defined as the actual, or potential, serious physical assault of a small child by an adult. These families were studied between 1968 and 1978 in a project established to conduct research on the problem of the physical abuse of preschool children. The study was designed with the hypothesis that abusing parents who demonstrated some sign of a desire to become better parents could be involved in a therapeutic endeavor offering concurrent care and protection to their child and treatment for themselves. The Project consists of a therapeutic daycare facility for the children, the Parents' Centre, and an office from which to base the treatment of the parents. It was undertaken in collaboration with the Parents' and Children's Services of the Children's Mission.

This paper is limited to a consideration of the findings relevant