DOES DARE WORK - AN EVALUATION IN RURAL TENNESSEE

The current evaluation examined the effectiveness of the D.A.R.E. prog ram in a rural Tennessee school system using self-report data on alcoh ol/drug use. The evaluation was longitudinal in nature with data from the first sample of controls (non-D.A.R.E. participants) collected in 1991, data from the second sample of controls collected in 1996 and da ta from the experimental group (D.A.R.E. participants) collected in 19 96. Analysis of the self-administered survey response showed that sign ificant differences existed only between the 1991 sample (n=253) and t he entire 1996 sample for the frequency of both alcohol (p<.0001) and drug use (p<.001). Comparisons between 1996 controls (n=93) and 1996 e xperimentals (n=49) proved nonsignificant, as did all other comparison s among the three groups. Results suggest that the factor of time betw een 1991 and 1996 may be the causal element in the observed difference s.