INTRODUCTION: Parental authority prototype may greatly influence how adolescent nursing students can demonstrate skills on how they provide quality nursing care to patients in the future. This study aimed to determine the association between parental authority prototype and perceived self-esteem among adolescent nursing students. METHODS: The researchers administered the Parenting Authority Questionnaire and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale to nursing students 16 to 19 years old to determine the maternal and paternal parenting types of the respondents and their level of self-esteem, respectively. Chi-square was used to determine the association between parenting style and self-esteem. RESULTS: Normal levels of self-esteem were seen in 70% of respondents and almost one-third were considered to have low self-esteem. The most common parenting style among both the respondents' mothers and fathers was authoritative. There were more authoritative mothers than fathers and twice as many authoritarian fathers than mothers. Paternal parental authority prototype was associated with the respondents' self-esteem (x2 = 19.19, p < 0.05) but the maternal authority prototype was not. CONCLUSION Paternal, but not maternal, parental prototype is associated with the perceived self-esteem of adolescent nursing students. The most common parenting style was authoritative for both mothers and fathers.