The purposes of this dissertation are threefold: first, to examine a model of how socioeconomic status, parenting, adolescents' academic achievement, and adolescents' self-esteem might be causally related; second, to examine whether or not the proposed model is structurally invariant across gender and grade; and third, to determine whether family income, paternal and maternal education, and paternal and maternal occupational prestige make unique contributions to nurturant and punitive parenting, adolescents' academic achievement, and self-esteem. Structural equation results showed that socioeconomic status has a significant and positive effect on nurturant parenting and on adolescents' academic achievement, which, in turn, affect adolescent self-esteem. MANOVA results showed a gender effect for academic achievement and a grade effect for parenting. Multiple regression results found a significant effect of parental education on adolescents' academic achievement. Possible future research directions and implications are discussed.