This study focused on the relations between the social problem-solving abilities of adolescents and their parents and aggression and delinquency in an adolescent sample. One hundred and seventeen high school students, 83 of their mothers, and 73 of their fathers completed the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised, which measures 5 different problem-solving dimensions and several different measures of adolescent externalizing behaviors. Adolescents' problem-solving ability was found to be significantly lower than that of their parents and significantly correlated with their mothers' but not their fathers' problem-solving ability. Three adolescent problem-solving dimensions were found to be related to aggression and/or delinquency. Other results suggested that the same dimensions might also be linked to substance use and high-risk automobile driving. Parents' problem solving was minimally related to adolescent externalizing problems. Adolescents' problem-solving ability accounted for a significant amount of variance in most externalizing measures even after controlling for mothers' problem-solving ability. Implications for treatment and prevention of adolescent behavioral problems are discussed.