Research has demonstrated that children who experience familial sexual maltreatment are atrisk for developing psychological difficulties characterized by emotional and behavioraldysregulation. Surprisingly, however, little attention has been directed toward identifyingprocesses in emotional development that differ in maltreated and nonmaltreated children. From adevelopmental psychopathology perspective, the present study examined emotion managementskills (i.e., emotional understanding, emotion regulation) in 21 sexually maltreated girls and theirnonmaltreated peers to determine how the experience of sexual maltreatment may interfere withnormative emotional development. Findings indicated that sexually maltreated girls, incomparison to their nonmaltreated peers, demonstrate lower emotional understanding anddecreased ability to regulate their emotions in accordance with cultural expectations. Further,maltreated girls expected less emotional support and more relational conflict from parents inresponse to sadness displays and from parents and peers in response to anger displays. Thesefindings will be discussed from the functionalist approach to emotional development,emphasizing the importance of social context (e.g., maltreating, nonmaltreating) in thedevelopment of children's emotion management skills.