The current study tested models to determine the extent to which self-worth and social goals mediate the influence of ethnic identity on aggression among aggressive European and African American preadolescents. Ethnic identity emerged as important for both groups, but in different ways. Different patterns of influence of ethnic identity and of mediation were found for the European and African American preadolescents. Ethnic identity was found to mediate the relation between self-worth and preadolescents' aggressive behavior for European Americans, and ethnic identity and dominance/revenge-oriented social goals resulted in direct main effect nonsignificant trends when predicting aggression for African Americans. Implications are discussed for ethnic identity in aggressive preadolescents. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)