This paper investigates the existence of nontrivial solution for the three-point boundary value problem u" + f(t, u) = 0, 0 < t < 1, u'(0) = 0, u(1) =alphau(eta), where N is an element of (0, 1), alpha is an element of R, alpha not equal 1, f is an element of C ([0, 1] x R, R). Under certain growth conditions on the nonlinearity f, several sufficient conditions for the existence of nontrivial solution are obtained by using Leray-Schauder nonlinear alternative. As an application, some examples to demonstrate our results are given. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.