The perception of mothers’ and fathers' acceptance or rejection significantly contributes to the children's socio-emotional development and their functioning in adulthood. Previous research has shown that parental behaviour, i.e. parental acceptance and rejection, affects the behavioural, cognitive and emotional development of children (Ansari & Qureshi, 2013). Self-esteem, empathy, and emotional regulation are positively correlated and belong to the domain of socio-emotional development of an individual. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of both mother’s and father’s acceptance and rejection to self-esteem, empathy, and emotional regulation among students, and to determine the contribution of both mother’s and father’s acceptance and rejection in explaining self-esteem, empathy, and emotional regulation among students. The study was conducted on 224 students (53 males and 171 females) of a university in Zagreb. In the study the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (Rohner, 2005), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1989), the Scale of Emotional Empathy (Raboteg-Šarić, 2002), the Emotional Regulatory and Control Questionnaire (Takšić, 2003) and the certain questions on demographic data have been used. The results show a positive association between father's acceptance and self-esteem and emotional regulation among students and a positive association between mother's acceptance and self-esteem and empathy among students. The mothers' rejection is negatively related to the self-esteem of students, while fathers' rejection is negatively related to self-esteem and emotional regulation. The results of multiple regression analyses show that a lower level of mothers’ rejection significantly contributes to the higher self-esteem of students, while the higher degree of mothers' acceptance significantly contributes to higher empathy among students. Mothers' and fathers' parental acceptance and rejection were not significant predictors of the emotional regulation among students.