This study sought to determine the relative contributions of individual, family, peer, and community risk and promotive factors in explaining alcohol and tobacco refusal attitudes among 227 African-American adolescents (ages 12 to 17) from urban and rural areas. Hierarchical linear regression (HLR) results revealed differences in the predictive value of risk and promotive factors with respect to tobacco and alcohol refusal attitudes. Specifically, individual and peer risk factors were predictive of tobacco refusal attitudes among youths. Individual, peer, and family risk and promotive factors were predictive of adolescents' alcohol refusal attitudes. Community factors were not significant predictors of youths' ability to refuse tobacco and alcohol, after controlling for more proximal influences. Future research should consider other psychosocial influences within an ecological framework that may account for additional variance in substance use attitudes among African-American adolescents. (Contains 4 tables.)