Health Buzz: Virginity Pledges and Other Health News
Posted December 29, 2008
Many of Those Who Take Virginity Pledges Have Premarital Sex
Teenagers who promise to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have sex before that as those who don't take virginity pledges, according to a new study published in the January issue of Pediatrics . Previous research found that those who take virginity pledges are more likely to wait to have sex than those who don't take such pledges. But this study used a different statistical method from earlier studies, which allowed researchers to compare pledge takers with non-pledge takers who were likely to delay having sex; it also didn't cover teens who weren't likely to take virginity pledges, HealthDay reports. (Praise the lord for good statistics)
The study included information from 934 high school students who had taken virginity pledges or had never had sex. "Virginity pledgers and similar nonpledgers don't differ in the rates of vaginal, oral, or anal sex or any other sexual behavior," study author Janet E. Rosenbaum, a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told HealthDay. "Strikingly, pledgers are less likely than similar nonpledgers to use condoms and also less likely to use any form of birth control."
Is abstinence-only education best for preventing teen pregnancy? U.S. News explored the debate over educating teens about sex last year. Earlier this month, our writer Lindsay Lyon explained how parents can help kids dodge pregnancy and STDs.
—January W. Payne
http://health.usnews.com/articles/he...alth-news.html
It would be interesting to read the actual article. I watched Laura Berman, psychotherapist, on the Today Show talk about this and the statistics that they used for this study. It sounds like they compared different variables, like age, high school type, family size, etc. against pledge signing. Interesting stuff.
Of course. They are kids. Only a few amount people have the discipline required at that age.
We are human. We developed an evolutionary trait that makes us WANT to have sex. It's a pleasurable experience.
Blame religion for demonizing such a beautiful thing.
you're a straight up bigot.
Oh Geez. Let's not turn this into a religious debate thread too. You have one already. /rant
Who's the real bigot?
The Church who criticizes those who have sex out of marriage or the people who criticize the Church for criticizing anyone in the first place?
ashbeeigh:
Ok sorry :P
Ontopic :
Yeah. Teenagers are horny. No surprise here.
This is the video:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/261848...19004#28419004
There wasn't a damn thing said about religion.
in biblical context:
Proverbs 5:18-20 (King James Version)
18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
ashbeeigh :
I already said sorry in a post up there and you posted another response about it to me.
Do you want me to respond ? Where do you think the stigma of sex before marriage comes from?
you hate the church, we get it.
It's cool. As long as you can contain yourself.
watch the video, i think it's pretty dead on. Peer pressure, peer pressure, peer pressure.
For me, in high school, my friends were more interested in getting into UT or MIT then getting laid. So, I was more busy with extracurriculars then worrying about sex. And if I was, it would be a lot like i am now. I have to trust the person that I have sex with. In high school I would of had to have been "in love" with that person. Like "oh my god head over heels in love." But I'm a chick, so you know.
Study: Teenage 'virginity pledges' are ineffective
Youths who promise abstinence are also less likely to use protection
By Rob Stein
updated 7:20 a.m. CT, Mon., Dec. 29, 2008
Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.
The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.
"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking."
The study is the latest in a series that have raised questions about programs that focus on encouraging abstinence until marriage, including those that specifically ask students to publicly declare their intention to remain virgins. The new analysis, however, goes beyond earlier analyses by focusing on teens who had similar values about sex and other issues before they took a virginity pledge.
"Previous studies would compare a mixture of apples and oranges," Rosenbaum said. "I tried to pull out the apples and compare only the apples to other apples."
The findings are reigniting the debate about the effectiveness of abstinence-focused sexual education just as Congress and the new Obama administration are about to reconsider the more than $176 million in annual funding for such programs.
"This study again raises the issue of why the federal government is continuing to invest in abstinence-only programs," said Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. "What have we gained if we only encourage young people to delay sex until they are older, but then when they do become sexually active — and most do well before marriage — they don't protect themselves or their partners?"
'Get real about sex education'
James Wagoner of the advocacy group Advocates for Youth agreed: "The Democratic Congress needs to get its head out of the sand and get real about sex education in America."
Proponents of such programs, however, dismissed the study as flawed and argued that programs that focus on abstinence go much further than simply asking youths to make a one-time promise to remain virgins.
"It is remarkable that an author who employs rigorous research methodology would then compromise those standards by making wild, ideologically tainted and inaccurate analysis regarding the content of abstinence education programs," said Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association.
Rosenbaum analyzed data collected by the federal government's National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which gathered detailed information from a representative sample of about 11,000 students in grades seven through 12 in 1995, 1996 and 2001.
Although researchers have analyzed data from that survey before to examine abstinence education programs, the new study is the first to use a more stringent method to account for other factors that could influence the teens' behavior, such as their at udes about sex before they took the pledge.
100 variables
Rosenbaum focused on about 3,400 students who had not had sex or taken a virginity pledge in 1995. She compared 289 students who were 17 years old on average in 1996, when they took a virginity pledge, with 645 who did not take a pledge but were otherwise similar. She based that judgment on about 100 variables, including their at udes and their parents' at udes about sex and their perception of their friends' at udes about sex and birth control.
"This study came about because somebody who decides to take a virginity pledge tends to be different from the average American teenager. The pledgers tend to be more religious. They tend to be more conservative. They tend to be less positive about sex. There are some striking differences," Rosenbaum said. "So comparing pledgers to all non-pledgers doesn't make a lot of sense[/B]." I lied..there's some religion involved.
By 2001, Rosenbaum found, 82 percent of those who had taken a pledge had retracted their promises[B], and there was no significant difference in the proportion of students in both groups who had engaged in any type of sexual activity, including giving or receiving oral sex, vaginal intercourse, the age at which they first had sex, or their number of sexual partners. More than half of both groups had engaged in various types of sexual activity, had an average of about three sexual partners and had had sex for the first time by age 21 even if they were unmarried.
"It seems that pledgers aren't really internalizing the pledge," Rosenbaum said. "Participating in a program doesn't appear to be motivating them to change their behavior. It seems like abstinence has to come from an individual conviction rather than participating in a program."
'Negative views about condoms'
While there was no difference in the rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the two groups, the percentage of students who reported condom use was about 10 points lower for those who had taken the pledge, and they were about 6 percentage points less likely to use any form of contraception. For example, about 24 percent of those who had taken a pledge said they always used a condom, compared with about 34 percent of those who had not.
Rosenbaum attributed the difference to what youths learn about condoms in abstinence-focused programs.
"There's been a lot of work that has found that teenagers who take part in abstinence-only education have more negative views about condoms," she said. "They tend not to give accurate information about condoms and birth control."
But Huber disputed that charge.
"Abstinence education programs provide accurate information on the level of protection offered through the typical use of condoms and contraception," she said. "Students understand that while condoms may reduce the risk of infection and/or pregnancy, they do not remove the risk."
"Virginity pledgers and similar nonpledgers don't differ in the rates of vaginal, oral, or anal sex or any other sexual behavior,"
?
Lol!
So basically this study tells us that teens who are likely to delay having sex behave the same as those who are likely to delay having sex and also make a pledge to that effect. The pledge itself is less important than the reasons some teens delay having sex.
If one does not pay attention, one comes away with the message that any attempts to inculcate values into teens that might cause them to delay having sex are futile.
I will officially pledge right now to not have sex with teenagers!
NO. It is saying that whether they take the pledge or not teens are having anal sex.
Teens are powerless over their hormones. That's like saying Tim Duncan will probably get a double double.
Actually the study tells us, in the words of the author:
It says that those who are more likely to make the pledge are less likely to have accurate information about birth control."Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking."
If the purpose of abstinence-only education is to reduce unwanted pregnancies, it would seem to not only be uneffective, but actually counter-productive.
The tendency to try and impart values somehow stifles the flow of accurate information.
It certainly can. But it needn't. The problem is parents withholding info from their kids about condoms and BC, not the value systems that abjure them.
If there's a scriptural basis for denying kids info about human health, I'd like to see it. There's no necessary contradiction between the two IMO.
People are stupid.
You've just proved your own point.
Indeed.
It's abundantly clear that is not the purpose of abstinence education.
I've never taken a virginity pledge
I am glad to see that someone else saw what this study actually compared. They specifically compared groups of kids with similar values and views toward sex and whether the pledge itself made a difference. They purposefully did not include at all in this study any teenager who would not have any inclination whatsoever to remaining a virigin. This study does not say what many are trying to say it does. I took no pledge but I remained a virgin until marriage- so I am one of those who would skew the numbers into saying the pledge does not really matter.
I would agree. And before anyone jumps onto the "I must have bad views on sex" it is actually quite the opposite.It seems like abstinence has to come from an individual conviction rather than participating in a program.
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