Emotion, Functioning, and Development In High-Risk Children Jodi Quas, Ph.D. In this presentation, I will describe extant research and theorizing concerning the links between emotional competence and functioning in high-risk youth. I will focus on two primary components of emotional competence: emotion understanding and emotion regulation in high-risk children. I will describe how components may be affected by exposure to chronic adversity, including childhood maltreatment, deprivation, and parental loss. I will also discuss how alterations to both emotion understanding and regulation may then influence functional outcomes across childhood through adolescence.