The studies of the strengths and weaknesses of family firms in their corporate governance have been widely examined in the finance and accounting literatures. Recently, socioemotional wealth theory explains psychological connection among the family members, so that they have strong intention to bequeath the family business to future generation. This study examines the relationships between family firms and earnings management based on socioemotional wealth theory. The empirical results show that family firms compared with those of non-family in Taiwan engage both of real earnings management and accrual-based earnings management. However, if one of the earnings management is controlled, the result shows the family firms prefer accrual-based earnings management to real earnings management.