Several theorists have argued for various reasons that low self-esteem predisposes individuals to adopt risk behaviors. However, links between self-esteem and a variety of risk behaviors among adolescents were not conclusive. This study examined associations between six domains of self-esteem (peers, school, family, sports/athletics, body image, and global self-worth) as assessed by the self-esteem questionnaire (SEQ) and risk behaviors related to substance use suicidal tendencies among a sample of 116 South African students in grades 8 and 11. The analyses indicated that all four risk behaviors investigated (alcohol, smoking, drugs, and suicide) were significantly associated with lower scores on at least one self-esteem scale. In addition, the results indicated that different dimensions of self-esteem were differentially related to risk behaviors, with family self-esteem showing the strongest overall pattern of correlations with the risk behaviors in both the bivariate and multivariate analyses. The study suggests that investigating links between specific domains of self-esteem and adolescent risk behaviors is likely to provide information that cannot be obtained from global measures of self-worth alone. Appendix and references