The experience of a traumatic event can often result in posttraumatic stress symptoms such as an impaired ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion. Impairments in facial emotion recognition can lead to reduced interpersonal functioning and a subsequent difficulty maintaining supportive relationships. Such interpersonal challenges can be especially impactful for people with posttraumatic stress, as supportive relationships are vital to processing and recovering from trauma. With that said, there are mixed findings in the literature with regards to exactly how posttraumatic stress impacts facial emotion recognition of negative emotions. The current study attempted to clarify these findings by examining two possible moderating factors: childhood trauma and behavioral inhibition. A sample of male and female participants, between the ages of 18-25, who had experienced an interpersonal trauma (N = 192) were asked to complete measures assessing posttraumatic stress severity, childhood trauma, behavioral inhibition, and an emotion recognition task. Results showed behavioral inhibition predicted posttraumatic stress severity. Additionally, childhood trauma moderated the relationship between posttraumatic stress severity and accuracy and sensitivity to anger, such that for those with childhood trauma, increased posttraumatic stress severity led to reduced accuracy and sensitivity. Neither posttraumatic stress severity, behavioral inhibition, nor childhood trauma were found to have a direct impact on emotion recognition accuracy or sensitivity. Similarly, behavioral inhibition was not found to moderate the relationship between posttraumatic stress severity and emotion recognition accuracy and sensitivity. An argument is made for continued studies into posttraumatic stress and facial emotion recognition. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]