The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of recalled parental childrearing behaviors on self-esteem in Japanese and South Korean undergraduate students from the viewpoints of behavior analysis. The participants were 201 Japanese students and 206 Korean students. The results showed that the more they recalled that their parents spoke positively about their relatives to others and the more they recalled that they were praised by their parents when they spoke positively about their relatives to others of childhood, the more they were likely in both countries to speak positively about their relatives to others. Furthermore, they were more likely to have high self-esteem. The results also showed that the larger the difference between present self-evaluation and self-evaluation spoken to others, the lower the self-esteem in Japan. On the other hand, the more they had experience of being praised and the more they recalled that they were praised by their parents when they spoke positively about their relatives to others of childhood, the higher the self-esteem in Korea.
