The present investigation examined depression and its social-cognitive and cognitive correlates in a sample of 108 elementary school children: 36 children in each of grades 1, 4, and 8. Children were classified as depressed and nondepressed according to their scores on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Depression appeared stable over a 3-week time interval. Depressed children reported a higher number of "masking"symptoms, were rated as more depressed by their teachers, and perceived their family environment to be more distressed. As posited, when compared to nondepressed children, depressed children have lower self-esteem, a more depressive attributional style, and more self-control deficits. Further, they have impaired performance on some cognitive tasks (block design, coding digit span) but not all (vocabulary). The prediction that depression wouM be manifested differently in first-, fourth-, and eighth-graders was not supported.In the last decade there has been an upsurge of interest in the area of childhood depression. While there is a major debate as to the existence of a syndrome of depression in children (for a review, see Kashani et al., 1981; , a consensus is emerging in the literature that (1) depression does exist in children; (2) its symptom picture is phenomenologically similar to that seen in adults Manuscript