Research on associations between child/adolescent maltreatment and psychosocial functioning has not yet focused on analyzing self-representations as mediators of those associations. Research has suggested that self-representations may develop unevenly across domains. This may account for differences between selfrepresentation in their associations with psychosocial functioning. This study aimed do analyze the mediating role of domain-specific self-representations in associations between maltreatment experiences and children’s and adolescents’ psychosocial functioning. Participants were 204 children/adolescents (52.5% boys), 8-16 years old (M=12.6), referred to children/youth protection committees, their parents and committees’ case workers. Case workers reported on youth maltreatment, children/adolescents reported on self-representations, and parents reported on psychosocial functioning. A multiple mediation analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized mediational pathways. A moderated mediation analysis was performed to analyze children’s and adolescents’ age as a moderator of those pathways. Controlling for potential effects of children’s and adolescents’ gender, results revealed four significant indirect effects: 1) higher levels of physical and psychological abuse were associated with with lower levels of externalizing behaviour through lower levels of social SR; 2) higher levels of physical neglect were associated with lower levels of externalizing behaviour through higher levels of opposition SR; 3) higher levels of psychological neglect reported were associated with lower levels of externalizing behaviour through lower levels of physical appearance SR, but 4) associated with higher levels of externalizing behaviour through lower levels opposition SR. The moderated mediation analysis showed that age was a moderator of the indirect effect of physical and psychological abuse on internalizing and externalizing behaviour, through different SR domains. Only for the older adolescents, these experiences were associated to higher levels on both internalizing and externalizing behaviour through lower levels of instrumental SR. Also, only for 12-13 year old adolescents, these experiences associated with lower levels of externalizing behaviour through lower levels of social SR. Findings support the mediating role of children’s and adolescents’ self-representations in the relation between maltreating experiences and their psychosocial functioning. Findings regarding the role of opposition SR are quite straightforward. Indeed, as suggested by the literature, unresponsive caregivers, lacking in emotional support, are more likely to reinforce their children’s negative self-representations. Particularly considering the opposition self-representations, it could be expected that mothers of children and adolescents with more negative self-representations in this domain would report higher levels of externalizing behaviour displays. However, these results found can be framed in the literature about the relation between adverse family experiences and displays of false-self behaviour. Children and adolescents who are victims of abusive and neglectful parenting practices are at a greater risk for suppressing their true selves and displaying false-self behaviour. Such parenting practices may lead children and adolescents not only to feeling that significant others do not value their true self, but also to devaluing it themselves. The more they feel this way, the more likely they are to display false self behaviour. In the context of higher levels of physical abuse and psychological neglect from parents, the high levels of parental conditional support may lead children and adolescents to learn to engage in behaviours less attuned with their attributes, in an effort to gain the needed approval, support and validation from their parents. Results point not only to the need to reduce child/adolescent maltreatment as a primary target in preventing negative self-representations and externalizing behavior in children and adolescents, but also to the need to promote the construction of positive and, most importantly, realistic and adaptive self-representations as protection against maladjustment.

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