Parents are the first and the most important environment for the formation of children's self-esteem. The processes of identification with parents behaviours, attitudes, opinions and the world perceptions play the main role. Depression with its sadness, pessimism and negative self- and world-perception has significant negative impact on the intrapsychic processes of the child. The literature suggests that in depressive families the emotional communication is significantly disordered, the educational processes are inconsistent and the patterns of behavioural responses are under the impact of the illness. The aim of the study was the verification of the hypothesis that parent's depression negatively influenced the formation of self-esteem of the child. The results allow for the confirmation that the childrens self-portrait is lowered and that the self-esteem is often ambivalent. There were no significant relations between verbal and non-verbal self-esteem. There was no significant influence on the process of identification with the same gender parent (it was not important which parent is depressive). Due to the small group of children analysed these results are a preliminary evaluation of the problem.