In a national telephone survey, 1,011 boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 16 were questioned about how they responded to threatened assaults. Children were asked about a wide range of actual or attempted victimizations, including assaults and attempted assaults by peers, gangs, or family members; kidnappings by persons in cars; and sexual victimizations. Children who reported a victimization or an attempted victimization were also asked whether they engaged in each of 10 actions during the episode in an attempt to prevent the attack or protect themselves from their attackers. Other issues examined in the survey were protective efficacy, victimization context, victimization-related injury, and father's preferred victimization response. The study found that boys, especially those in their teens, used more aggressive forms of resistance and felt those strategies had been more effective compared to younger children and girls. Children advised by their fathers to stand up and fight also felt more successful using aggressive resistance. The findings from the analysis suggest that different children may feel more successful with different protection strategies. These findings argue against a unifaceted or "one size fits all" approach to victimization prevention. Prevention educators are encouraged to consider tailoring their messages to a variety of subgroups of children. 5 tables, 1 note, and 13 references