The objective of the study is to investigate early socialization of emotional expression in an urban, working-class community. The study will contribute to our understanding of a neglected population--white children from low-income families--and a neglected aspect of communicative competence-- the young child's emerging ability to express emotions appropriately. The study is an extension of a previous investigation of the developing communicative skills of three two-year-olds. It represents one of the few efforts to study poor children in the context of naturally occurring interactions with their families. The specific goals of the study are to (1) trace the development of children's verbal expressions of emotion during the third year of life; (2) trace corresponding developments in caretakers' socialization practices; (3) describe caretakers' beliefs and values concerning mental health and affective socialization; and (4) relate caretakers' expressed beliefs to their socialization practices. These goals will be approached via an ethnographic research strategy that is longitudinal in design and combines repeated observation of young children in the contexts of everyday life with an inquiry into the beliefs and values of their families.