The present research examined the developing awareness in children that one's emotional state need not correspond to how one appears expressively to others. Descriptive data were collected on children's own views about emotion management in interpersonal conflict scenarios and in general hypothetical situations. All of the child variables provide information about children's preinteraction expectancies from the standpoint of emotion management. Developmental differentiation in the children's data was examined by coding three qualitative variables according to ordinal ranks of complexity. Remaining variables were coded according to nominal categories. Specific category variables studied were (1) justification for emotion management in hypothetical conflict scenarios, (2) interpersonal consequences for emotion management, (3) preference for either peers or adults as targets for genuine displays of emotion, and rationale for preference, and (4) a rationale for an adaptive "balance" in showing or not showing one's genuine feelings to another. Instruments used to collect data included the newly-developed Parent Attitude toward Children's Expressiveness Scale, Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale (1974), and Moos' Family Environment Scale (1974). A total of 32 children in three groups with mean ages of 7.9, 10.8, and 13.8 years and 52 of their parents participated. (RH)