Washington ? An overhauled version of the much-maligned D.A.R.E. anti-drug program shows promising results in early trials, researchers said, suggesting that lessons once reserved for fifth-graders could be reborn someday for pupils in elementary school through high school.

Researchers found that seventh-graders in six cities who took part in the new curriculum were more likely to find using drugs socially inappropriate than a control group, were better at refusing drugs and had fewer misconceptions about how many of their peers use drugs. They were also less likely to say they would use inhalants.

“It shows us that the program is doing what it intended to do, and in a very significant way,” said Zili Sloboda, an epidemiologist at the Institute for Health and Social Policy at the University of Akron.

The results were being released Tuesday by the university.

Sloboda, who led the study, said it’s too early to tell if the new program will have significant impact on drug use but anticipated that a follow-up program in high school will help children stay off drugs just as pressure to use them begins in earnest.

“These kids are prepared now,” she said. “Now we’ve got to reinforce that when they enter the ninth grade.”

Researchers studied about 15,500 seventh-graders, some of whom took part in the new curriculum and others, in a control group, who didn’t. They plan to follow the students until their junior years in high school.

D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, was created by police officers in Los Angeles in 1983, to teach fifth-graders about the dangers of drugs. The program has been started in 80 percent of school districts, but in the past few years critics have said it doesn’t work.

A study last August by the University of North Carolina found that several top anti-drug programs, including the original version of D.A.R.E., either were ineffective or hadn’t been sufficiently tested.

Other researchers have found that illegal drug use among teenagers has remained level or decreased the past several years, partly because adults are warning students about drug use and encouraging youths to nurture other interests.

The new D.A.R.E. curriculum will target students not only in fifth grade, but in seventh and ninth grades as well. Teachers will also help teach lessons, unlike the current program, which is taught largely by police officers.

Sloboda said the new program also will involve more lifelike situations and help students confront peer pressure.