School grades, family demographics and responses to the parental authority questionnaire were assessed in 240 eighth-grade students in the southern, central and northern parts of Tehran, Iran's capital. The result showed that poorer families with traditional values had more authoritarian attitudes toward parenting than richer families with more modern values. In contrast to the studies conducted in East Asian societies, the current study found that authoritative parenting was the style associated with the highest academic outcome. Tests of mediation and moderation effects showed that the relation between parenting style and academic outcome was independent of sociocultural context.