The report examines research on differences in the interpretations of discrepant and nondiscrepant messages by normal and emotionally disturbed children and reports on a study in which tone of voice and verbal content were discrepant in their affective meaning. A review of the research on discrepant messages, their delivery, interpretation, and implications for the study of psychopathology is presented first. Then the methodologies used in these studies are described in relation to the comparability of findings. Also discussed are adult-child and normal-disturbed differences in the interpretation of affective meaning in consistent and discrepant messages. Two preliminary experiments validated the affective content of 29 sentences and of tone of voice respectively. Among results of the study comparing disturbed (N=34) and normal (N=34) 7- to 10-year-old children's interpretations of messages were: both groups rated discrepant messages as more angry than nondiscrepant messages; disturbed children were more likely to interpret messages primarily on the basis of verbal content; and disturbed children interpreted messages as happier than did normal children. (DB)