The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between parenting attitudes of Asian Indian mothers living in the United States and their preschool children's perception of self-competence. Twenty-eight Asian Indian mothers and their preschool-aged children living in the United States participated in the study. The parenting attitudes of the mothers were measured using the Adolescent--Adult Parenting Inventory. The participating preschoolers' perceived self-competence was measured using the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance. Correlation of the parenting attitudes subscales and the perception of self-competence subscales indicated that there was significant correlation between cognitive competence and inappropriate expectations (r = 0.45, p less than 0.05), corporal punishment (r = 0.46, p less than 0.05), and role reversal (r = 0.59, p less than 0.01). Role reversal was also significantly correlated with peer acceptance (r = 0.46, p less than 0.05). The correlation between inappropriate expectations, corporal punishment, role reversal and cognitive competence among the Asian Indian children could be attributed to the values their parents place on cognitive skills. (Contains 1 table.)