This study, part of a larger project called "Project Competence," explored the relationship between two aspects of social-cognitive ability (interpersonal awareness and social problem-solving) and three aspects of manifest competence in children (social, behavioral, and academic). In a series of hierarchical multiple regressions, social- cognitive factors made significant and substantial contributions to the prediction of social competence, beyond what was already accounted for by age, sex, and intellectual functioning. Its independent explanatory power was somewhat less for behavioral competence, and minimal for academic competence. Two significant interaction effects were also observed: (1) increasing family stress scores were associated with decreasing levels of behavioral competence in the context of poor interpersonal awareness, but were unrelated in the context of mature awareness; and (2) increasing family stress scores were associated with decreasing levels of academic competence in the context of below-average intellectual functioning, but were associated with increasing academic competence in the context of above-average intellectual functioning. While methodological limitations necessitate interpretive caution, these two interactions offer clues to the nature of stress-resistance in children. (Author/MP)