Two questionnaires were administered to 125 male and 131 female senior high school students to investigate the influence of parental child-rearing attitudes on adolescent self-esteem. The results indicated that the influence of parental child-rearing attitudes on children's self-esteem depends on their sex. In males, only when the father strongly limited the autonomy of his son, the father's weak identification with his son was associated with the son's high self-esteem. In females, only when the mother identified with her daughter weakly, the mother's strong control was associated with the daughter's low self-esteem. These results were discussed from various points of view, such as the differences in functions and roles between the father and mother, and the psychological weaning that is a developmental task in adolescence.
