The literature on father absence is criticized for its lack of cross-cultural perspectives and failure to take into account potential mechanisms that are related to associations between father absence and offspring well-being and development. To counter these limitations, the present study investigated whether father absence was linked to adolescents’ and young adults’ academic engagement by examining their behavioral and emotional (dis)engagement in school. In doing so, we included a large sample of students from Curaçao (n = 564; 62% female; M age = 18.30, SE = 1.97) and the Netherlands (n = 652; 57% female; M age = 17.42, SE = 1.57), two cultures that differ substantially in the prevalence of father absence.