Purpose: To assess the association between tobacco use and selected protective/ risk factors in the youth of Quito. Procedures: The 2007 Quito Global School based Student Health Survey database is now available from the CDC website and was used for the purpose of this study. A secondary data analyses was conducted using SPSS to compute inferential statistics. A total of 2,215 students participated in the Ecuador (Quito) GSHS. Students self-reported their responses to each question on a computerized answer sheet. Findings: Our study found that more than 1 in 10 Ecuador youth reported smoking cigarettes in the past 1 month. Out of these smokers, almost 1 in 10 initiated smoking when they were 13 years of age or younger. Males were more likely to report tobacco use than females. In addition, there were several risk factors for youth tobacco use in the youth of Ecuador that relate to inadequate parental supervision and parenting, parental smoking or tobacco use, school attendance, and peer support. Conclusions: Schools and parents should work in close collaboration to alleviate the problem of youth tobacco use in Ecuador. Specifically, schools should conduct periodic assessments of school attendance, academic performance, and prevalence of youth tobacco use. Also, parents should be educated on how to develop effective parenting skills to monitor the academic performance, well-being, and concerns of the youth.