The relationship between perceived early family experiences and preschool teaching behavior was investigated. Subjects were 109 female student teachers in two laboratory preschool settings. Subjects completed a questionnaire about their early family experiences and their teaching behavior was recorded by trained observers using McDaniel's Observer Rating Scale (ORS). The nine dimensions of the ORS were reduced to two factors, Teaching Style and Teaching Technique, using a principal‐components factor analysis. Pearson product‐moment correla tions and a canonical variate analysis were used to analyze the data. Teaching Style was found to be related to family size, family crises, family activities, and family income adequacy. The saliency of these relationships was influenced by the age period in which the family experiences occurred. College major was related to Teaching Technique. Knowing about student teachers' family and ed ucational backgrounds gives some insight into the teaching behavior with pre school children.