A study involving 55 abusive or neglecting families and 54 control families with children under 4 months to 2 1/2 years old was conducted to develop a battery of measures for identifying parents who have potential for abuse and/or neglect of children. Interviews, questionnaires, videotaped behavioral observations, and physiological responses were used to investigate variables such as parents' background, personality, and child rearing attitudes. Measures differentiated between the abusive group and controls on background, empathy, self concept as a parent, maternal or infant complications of pregnancy or newborn period, how parents handled irritating child behaviors, child rearing attitudes, parent-child communication, parent child interaction, parental support systems, and physiological response. (Author/SBH)