The present study examined how risk and protective factors were associated with adolescent victimization by testing four competing models from resiliency research - the compensatory, risk-protective, protective-protective, and challenge models. Models were tested separately by gender. The data for this study were based on a multistate project that surveyed 992 eighth-grade students between the ages of 12 and 15 years (54% female, 54% White) in at-risk urban and rural schools. Models incorporated family conflict, anger expression, external locus of control, witnessing violence, and involvement in risky behaviors as risk factors; protective factors included social connectedness, parental monitoring, and neighborhood cohesion. Results indicated support for the challenge model for both male and female early adolescents. Implications for prevention work and future research are discussed.