All students appear to be affected in one way or another by the critical transition from elementary to secondary school. research suggests that school failure is among the most important factors to consider when investigating the risk of dropping out. Yet school dropout remains a multidimensional phenomenon and there are a variety of interrelated factors which contribute to its occurrence. beyond the individual factors related to dropout, several studies have also pointed to a series of family characteristics associated with the risk of leaving school early: family socio-economic status, parental support, involvement, and super - vision as well as their values and expectations about their child’s school success, to name a few. families play an important role in student success and affect conditions that might lead to dropping out. Therefore, the current study is particularly interested in examining the students’ perceptions of individual, family, and school related variables predicting dropout risk at the time of the transition from elementary to secondary school. In addition, we also examine how these factors are interrelated for given school period but also in a longitudinal way on three school years. We used path analysis to examine a model predicting the risk of dropping out. Possible interrelations between the variables were also examined. findings revealed that three individual variables directly and indirectly influence our criteria (first the perception of pupils on the school and on its schooling and second, school results). Social behavior, working methods and social integration significantly explain the student dropout risk.