Personality and social development of fourteen children with hypopituitary short stature and of age- and sex-matched controls were assessed by interview, observation, and projective testing. Children with growth hormone deficiency suffer from pervasive disturbances in identity formation, distorted body image, difficulties in the expression of aggression, and feelings of incompetence. The children's depression, emotional immaturity, and general personality difficulties are related to the way in which short stature elicits behavior appropriate to younger children; the child's sense of guilt for the short stature; parental overprotectiveness; increasing disparity in size from peers; and perhaps to basic endocrinological effects on central nervous system maturation.