This study investigated the effects of the magnitude of children's need on their reactance to verbal threats from their mothers in Japan and Taiwan. Subjects were 176 fourth- and fifth-graders in Japan and 185 in Taiwan. The main results were as follows. On verbal and internal response dimension, perseveration-prolongment responses were stronger in Japan than in Taiwan, but their approval responses were stronger in Taiwan than in Japan. On verbal response dimension, children's approval responses were stronger on the condition of low magnitude of need than on the condition of the high in Taiwan, while the magnitude of children's need had no effect in Japan. On behavioral response dimension, negativism was more sailient in Japan than in Taiwan.