Sociologists and psychologists have shown increasing interest in moral emotions such as pride, shame, and guilt, including their developmental role. While these emotions have an important part in normal development, the chronically shame-prone person has feelings of worthlessness, incompetence, and helplessness; a guilt-prone person dwells on imagined wrongs to be undone; and a pride-prone person risks social rejection. This study examined the extent to which various measures of guilt- and shame-proneness in children were differentially related to symptoms thought to be associated with development of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The study involved both child and adult samples. The child sample consisted of 104 children from 5 to 12 years old, along with their parents. The children were tested, including completion of the Child Attribution and Reaction Survey-Child Version (C-CARS), Children's Interpretations of Interpersonal Distress and Conflict (CIIDC), and the Semi-Structured Clinical Interview for Children (SCIC). Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The adult sample consisted of 102 college students in a psychology course. They completed the MMPI-2 and measures dealing with guilt- and shame-proneness. Results showed few indications that non-ruminative forms of guilt-proneness were related to psychological symptoms in either adults or children, but that it is premature to conclude that guilt is primarily adaptive in nature. Projective indicators of guilt were related strongly to shame-proneness, which itself was a salient variable in predicting externalizing symptoms in both children and adults. (Contains 20 references.) (BGC)