<p>Exposure to maltreatment in childhood can lead to long- and short-term differences in people’s emotional functioning. Although the literature predominantly investigates the short-term effects, comprehending the prolonged implications of child maltreatment on the recognition of facial emotions is also deemed to be significant. Therefore, the current meta-analysis focuses on the relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotion recognition skills in adulthood. Web of Science (WoS), Medline and Scopus databases were systematically searched. This meta-analysis utilized the PRISMA checklist, included 23 studies with a total sample size of 2029, and yielded some noteworthy results. Results indicate that there was a weak and negative significant correlation between child maltreatment and reaction accuracy (<i>r</i> = -0.11, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). Moreover, separate analyses of emotion recognition showed that small negative and significant correlations existed between recognizing anger, fear, and disgust emotions and CM in the community sample. These findings indicate that a history of severe maltreatment may associated with greater difficulties in recognizing emotions. Additionally, no significant association was discovered between CM and reaction times, except for a significant positive correlation in response to happy faces. Considering that the relationship between CM and emotion recognition is predominantly investigated in children, this meta-analysis provides insight into understanding the relationship between CM and emotion recognition abilities in adulthood. Nevertheless, further research is required to understand how CM affects emotion recognition and which types of maltreatment are associated with specific emotions.</p>