Violence and drug use in schools have plagued, not only American society, but societies throughout the world. To explore this issue, some of the personal, psychological, and contextual variables hypothesized to predict violence in schools were examined. Violence was operationalized in terms of being attacked at school or avoiding certain places in school. Substance abuse was defined in terms of students' perceptions of substance abuse in school. Demographic characteristics that were examined include age, gender, and socio-economic status. Some of the psychological attitudes studied were worry, hope, willingness to talk to parents about school, and being challenged at school. Data for the study came from the 1993 National Household Education Survey which included students in grades 6 through 12 (N=6,504). Analysis of results indicate that older students reported higher levels of substance abuse, but lower incidences of violence, than did younger students. Income, gender, and ethnicity were not strong predictors of any of the outcomes. The presence of weapons in school was related to avoiding certain dangerous places in school. The perception of rules as ineffective was related to more attacks and greater perceptions of substance abuse. (Contains 86 references.) (RJM)