Relations between marital aggression (psychological and physical) and children's health were examined. Children's emotional insecurity was assessed as a mediator of these relations, with distinctions made between marital aggression against mothers and fathers and ethnicity (African American or European American), socioeconomic status, and child gender examined as moderators of effects. Participants were 251 community-recruited families, with multiple reporters of each construct. Aggression against either parent yielded similar effects for children. Children's emotional insecurity mediated the relation between marital aggression and children's internalizing, externalizing, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. No differences were found in these pathways for African American and European American families or as a function of socioeconomic status or child gender. Keywords marital aggression; emotional security theory; child health; child adjustment; PTSD Children's exposure to marital aggression is a recognized public health problem (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2003, PAR-03-096), and the examination of the effects of such aggression on child functioning is a significant societal concern. Marital conflict is broadly defined as any difference of opinion, whether minor or major and whether primarily positive or negative. Marital conflict can take many forms, including displays of both positive and negative emotions and constructive (e.g., problem-solving) and destructive (e.g., physical assault) tactics. Thus, marital aggression, characterized by physical and/or psychological abuse, is at the negative extreme of a continuum of marital conflict (Cummings, 1998 considered by some to be psychological abuse, whereas marital physical violence indicates physical assault on a partner's body (Jouriles, Norwood, & McDonald, 1996). Marital psychological/verbal and physical aggression is prevalent in U.S. families (NIH, 2003, PAR-03-096) and is associated with adverse child outcomes in externalizing (Jouriles, Murphy, & O'Learey, 1989), internalizing (Marks, Glaser, Glass, & Horne, 2001), and posttraumatic stress disorder domains (Kilpatrick & Williams, 1997).High levels of spousal physical violence typically co-occur with psychological abuse (Stets, 1990), with psychological abuse almost always preceding physical violence in the relationship (O'Leary, Malone, Tyree, 1994). Furthermore, marital psychological abuse may account for additional unique variance in child functioning after controlling for the effects of physical aggression (Jouriles et al., 1996), highlighting the importance of examining multiple aspects of marital aggression.This study addresses not only the sequelae of marital physical violence on child functioning but also the effects of the more prevalent psychological and emotional marital abuse (Marshall, 1992). Moving beyond the examination of the effects of marital aggression and violence on child witnesses in battered women shelters and clinical settings, this study focuses on a commu...