Early experimentation with drinking increases the lifetime risk for substance abuse and other serious health and social problems. We studied factors associated with early alcohol experimentation by surveying 4,263 sixth- to eighth-grade students (67.1% White, 23.5% Black, 7.2% other races combined; 2.2% missing data) from seven schools in one suburban school district. The prevalence of drinking in the last 30 days was 12.1% for boys and 13.1% for girls (12.6% overall); 6.6% among sixth graders, 11.1% among seventh graders, and 19.5% among eighth graders. In multiple logistic regression analyses, controlling for grade, positive alcohol expectancies, perceived prevalence, and deviance acceptance were associated positively, self-control negatively, with drinking for both boys and girls. Among boys, grade point average was negatively associated with drinking. Among girls, propensity for risk-taking and problem-behaving friends were positively associated and high parental expectations were negatively associated with drinking. Alcohol use in our sample of early adolescent boys and girls was better explained by modifiable psychosocial factors such as alcohol expectancies, perceived prevalence, and self-control than by grade.