Students increasingly encounter a wide range of individual and environmental pressures in their daily lives—pressures rooted in the social, emotional, and academic conditions of school, home, and the broader community. This growing complexity underscores the necessity of understanding effective protective mechanisms that can support students in navigating such challenges. Accordingly, the present study aims to compare students’ academic resilience based on patterns of parental presence, with an emphasis on the role of family capitals, among a sample of students in Tehran. The study employed a survey design and utilized a questionnaire for data collection. A sample of 380 students was estimated using SPSS Sample Power, and participants were selected through cluster and stratified sampling methods. The research instrument demonstrated acceptable levels of validity and reliability. Data analysis was conducted using a combination of SPSS, AMOS, and PLS software packages. Descriptive findings indicate that two-parent families possess higher levels of family social capital, social support, and socioeconomic status compared to single-parent families. These differences were also reflected in the levels of academic resilience: 59% of students from two-parent families exhibited high academic resilience, whereas this percentage was only 28% among students from single-parent households. Inferential analysis further revealed that family social capital and family social support have a positive and significant relationship with academic resilience, with stronger effects observed in two-parent families. In other words, the academic resilience of students from two-parent families is more strongly influenced by familial factors than that of students from single-parent families.