Study findings indicate that the prevalence rates for substance use varied widely across racial/ethnic categories which are consistent with previous epidemiological data. Self-management skills were found to be most strongly protective for suburban White youth and significantly less protective for urban minority youth. The findings are consistent with previous research showing that predictive power of risk and protective factors derived from psychosocial theories varies widely across racial/ethnic subgroups of youth and is weaker among racial/ethnic minority youth compared to White youth. The findings suggest that an important next step is to broaden the focus of etiology research from individual-level determinants to studying adolescent substance use behavior in the context of one’s cultural background and primary social settings, such as family, school, and community environments. A variety of cognitive and behavioral self-management skills have been posited as protective in terms of adolescent substance use. This study examined whether these skills measured in the 7th grade served a protective function in 9th grade substance use across ethnically diverse samples of adolescents. The study sample consisted of 461 African-Americans and 320 Hispanic urban youth and 757 White suburban youth. Tables, figure, references