The normal course of emotional development serves as a backdrop against which to recognize and identify emotional maltreatment. Emotional development means the development of emotional competence -- the ability to love others, to feel good about oneself, to get along with others in an everyday way, and to be free of self-destructive or antisocial emotional explosions and severe depression. There is no reliable answer to the question of how common emotional maltreatment is. Evidence from reported cases of emotional abuse is not adequate as a basis for estimating the number of unreported cases. Most cases of physical abuse include emotional maltreatment. Among infants, emotional abuse is often linked to physical or sexual assault; among adolescents, the physical component is present less often. One of the basic principles in understanding emotional maltreatment is that adults can only maltreat a child to the extent that the child depends on them. The enduring parent-child relationship has the greatest potential for both nurturance and abuse. Reasons why parents emotionally maltreat their children are examined, along with forms of maltreatment and advice for parents and children on how to deal with emotional abuse. 27 references