This study aimed to explore the mediating role of maternal parenting style in the relationship between maternal educational attainment and adolescents’ academic self-esteem, and to examine how this relationship varied as a function of adolescent’s gender.The participants were 715 middle school students. Participants were asked to complete a survey which assessed their mothers’ educational attainment, parenting style and their own academic self-esteem. The results indicated that maternal educational attainment significantly predicted adolescents’ academic self-esteem. In addition, mothers’ parenting style(i.e., maternal warmth,punishment and rejection) partially mediated the relationship between maternal educational attainment and adolescents’ academic self-esteem. Gender moderated the mediating path through mothers’ parenting style. Specifically, the relationship between mothers’ parenting style and adolescents’ academic self-esteem were stronger for girls than for boys. These results highlight the importance of encouraging positive parenting and reducing negative parenting in facilitating the development of positive academic self-evaluation in adolescents.