This study examined the developmental and gender influences on children's normative emotional expression and control. The study surveyed 307 pairs of middle-class European-American children who were 7, 11, and 15 years old, and one parent of each child. The results of the survey showed that children were closer to the norm in their expressive behavior than in their control behavior. There was little age change in girls' normative expression and control and in boys' normative control. As for gender difference, the study notes that boys declined with age in normative expression, presumably because the expression items involved emotions such as fear, sadness, and joy, whose expression males are expected to inhibit as they mature. From a perspective of parents, the results showed that mothers and fathers agreed about children's normative emotional control, but that mothers presented more normative emotional expression. (Contains 56 references.) (AP)