Research has indicated that emotional processes are central to understanding how the experiences of child maltreatment impact on the development of psychological distress and behavioral problems for child victims. Shame has recently received increasing research attention for its potential in explaining how children who are maltreated become at risk for poor adjustment outcomes. The five articles in this special issue focus on research findings and theoretical developments regarding emotion and child maltreatment. These approaches focus on the emotional evaluation of incidents of child maltreatment rather than on the incidents themselves as key to a child’s adjustment following trauma. Four main components are addressed in this issue as lending significance to events and generating and regulating emotion: personal goals, hedonics, emotional communication, and past experiences. A range of maltreatment experiences are also examined in this issue, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and intimate partner violence. The findings presented in these articles will make excellent building blocks for the continuation of research into effective treatments for child maltreatment. References