The present investigation examined the relation of physical abuse and depressive symptoms among 79 child psychiatric inpatients (ages 6 to 13). Childhood depression, hopelessness, and self-esteem were assessed through questionnaire or interview measures administered to the children. Mothers also completed measures to evaluate their children's dysfunction. As predicted, physically abused children, compared to nonphysically abused patient control subjects, evinced significantly lower self-esteem and greater depression and negative expectations toward their futures. Among abused children, those with both past and current abuse showed more severe symptoms of depression that did those with either past or current abuse only. The differences in depressive symptoms between abused and nonabused children could not be accounted for by differences in child psychiatric diagnosis, age, race, gender, IQ, or severity of psychopathology or parent psychiatric diagnoses, marital, or socioeconomic status. The results suggest that physical abuse, at least for a psychiatric patient sample, is related to symptoms of depression. The possible basis for this relation and the treatment implications of these findings are briefly discussed.Children who have been physically abused are at risk for a variety of psychological symptoms, problems of adjustment, and developmental, motoric, and cognitive deficiencies (Friedrich & Einbender, 1983;Newberger, Newberger, & Hampton, 1983). Among psychiatric problems of abused children, antisocial behaviors have received frequent attention. The focus is understandable given the connections between violence in the home (e.g., child and spouse abuse) and aggressive child behavior and delinquency (e.g., George & Main, 1979;Hunner & Walker, 1981;Kinard, 1980).Relatively little attention has been accorded the investigation of depression among physically abused children. Yet, for several reasons, depressive symptoms might be expected
