Effect of Sociocultural Context and Parenting Style on Scholastic Achievement among Iranian Adolescents Seyed Mohammad Assadi, Nayereh Zokaei, Hossein Kaviani, Mohammad Reza Mohammadi, Padideh Ghaeli, Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, Mahmood Reza Gohari, Department of Biostatistics, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Iran and Fons J. R. van de Vijver, Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, The Netherlands and North-West University, South Africa Abstract School grades, family demographics and responses to the parental authority question- naire were assessed in 240 eighth-grade students in the southern, central and northern parts ofTehran, 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 socio- cultural context. Keywords: parenting style; Iran, adolescents; scholastic achievement Parenting styles have been well studied among different ethnic groups in the USA. (Collins & Steinberg, 2006) and in various other societies including East Asian countries (Chao & Tseng, 2002). However, there are almost no data from Middle Eastern cultures. Because cultural context has a substantial influence on parents’ beliefs and behaviors, generalizability studies (Van de Vijver & Leung, 1997) in Middle Eastern cultures not only provide information regarding parenting in other societies but also broaden our cross-cultural database so as to better understand the role of cultural factors in parenting. The current study examines the relation between sociocultural context, parenting styles and scholastic achievement among Iranian adolescents. Correspondence should be addressed to Seyed Mohammad Assadi, Roozbeh Psychiatric Hospital, South Kargar Avenue,Tehran 13337, Iran. Email: assadism@sina.tums.ac.ir © Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2007. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.