Based on the view that emotional competence is an important contributor to an individual's success, this report focuses on the critical importance of early relationships with important adults, especially parents, on an individual's level of emotional competence. The report maintains that early interactions between parent and infant affect the child's psychological and neurological development, influencing the young child's learning readiness and also the adolescent's ability to succeed in other areas of life. The origins of trust are illustrated in descriptions of two infants and the different caregiving style of their parents. Evidence is presented from the Mother-Child Study that children not receiving sensitive, responsive care in the first few years of life were at significantly higher risk for a variety of poor developmental outcomes. Other topics discussed in the report are the impact of early relationships on brain development, factors placing parents at risk for providing care that does not facilitate their child's healthy emotional development, other influences on children's emotional development, characteristics of child care necessary for promoting healthy emotional development, and the relation between emotion and learning readiness. The report concludes with a description of promising approaches to meeting the emotional needs of young children, including pediatric health care providers sharing with parents information about children's emotional needs, community-based parent support programs, ensuring that child care is of high quality, counseling and infant mental health services, and educating child welfare workers and others who make child custody decisions about the importance of long-lasting, warm relationships. (Contains 17 reference notes.) (KB)