As part of a larger study examining the relation between cognition and emotional understanding, 70 children in kindergarten and third, sixth, and ninth grades were interviewed about four dimensions of emotional understanding: knowledge, control, causality, and multiple feelings. Children were asked about each of these dimensions with regard to their own and their parents' feelings. A mixed model analysis of variance with grade and gender as between-groups variables and dimension and object of understanding as repeated measures revealed main effects for grade and object of understanding. A three-way interaction of grade by object of understanding by dimension also was found. Kindergarten children scored significantly higher on questions about the self than they did on questions about parents' feelings for all the dimensions except knowledge. Third graders showed no differences between questions about own and parents' feelings for any dimension. The self/parent difference reemerged for sixth graders for the knowledge dimension and continued for the ninth graders. Results supported the idea of structural differences in children's emotional cognition and the proposition that children at different ages understand feelings differently. It is suggested that these differences have direct bearing on psychopathology of and psychotherapy with children. (RH)