According to a recently released federal study, teenagers who take a pledge of abstinence until marriage are just as likely to engage in premarital sex as their peers who make no such promise, and are also much less likely to engage in protected sex when they do so. Published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the study was conducted by researcher Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and surveyed nearly 1,000 high school students.
Unlike previous research, which compared teenagers who took virginity pledges with those who didn’t take such pledges and had no intentions of delaying sexual activity, this 2007 study compared pledge takers with non-pledge takers who nevertheless wished to delay having sex. “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 explained. “So comparing pledgers to all non-pledgers doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
The results were striking: Rosenbaum discovered that virginity pledges had little effect on the likelihood of pledging teenagers to engage in premarital sex, reporting that “Virginity pledgers and similar non-pledgers don’t differ in the rates of vaginal, oral or anal sex or any other sexual behavior.” Very little difference was found between the two groups, including the number of sexual partners and the age at which the teen lost his or her virginity.
Alarmingly, the most significant difference noted between pledgers and non-pledgers was the likelihood of engaging in protected sex, whether it be through the use of condoms or some other form of birth control. The study demonstrated that pledgers were far less likely to have used any form of birth control in the past year, or in the last time they had sex. “Strikingly, pledgers are less likely than similar nonpledgers to use condoms and also less likely to use any form of birth control,” Rosenbaum said. Pledgers were found to be 10 percent less likely than their peers to use any form of contraception.
Also noteworthy is the fact that pledgers tended to retract their promise of virginity. Results showed that five years after taking the pledge of abstinence, 82 percent of those denied ever having taken the pledge. “It seems that pledgers aren’t really internalizing the pledge,” Rosenbaum concluded. “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.”
According to Rosenbaum, these results suggest that abstinence-only sex education may not be the most effective means of providing teenagers with information about sex and the risks of sexual activity. Researchers found that the government spends roughly $200 million annually on abstinence education, yet that funding may be money ill-spent. “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,” Rosenbaum said. “They tend not to give accurate information about condoms and birth control.”
30 Comments, Comment or Ping
Dickie
People are crazy if they think abstinence prevents pregnancy! My cousin got pregnant in a pool, and lots of people get it from toilet seats.
Dec 30th, 2008
David
Yes, and you can also get pregnant from just walking down the street or even without any human intervention at all, which would make you the child of god.
Pledges, promises or vows aren’t worth the air needed to utter them.
Dec 30th, 2008
Nicolas Martin
Abstinence is not foolproof. Just ask Mary.
Dec 30th, 2008
Mattyd
Dickie the same thing happens to my friends all the time!
Except they all end up with penises in them at the time, which is how they get pregnant. Like when there’s a man between them and a toilet seat.
I hope you’re kidding and not just crazily mistaken.
Dec 30th, 2008
Phil
Um? Dickie? That went out with the golden shower of Zeus falling on one of his chosen women. Now you can get pregnant in a pool but it requires a tad more action than the backstroke. And Pregnant from toilet seats? Right and you can’t get pregnant the first time either. Just ask my sister or my nephew who she had after her first time.
And it doesn’t work. Go history books, look up pledges for abstinence from anything including a good stiff drink. As House says “Everyone lies” even if it is to themselves.
Best prevention I had when I was a teen was reading Joy of Sex and More Joy plus Everything you wanted to know about Sex and was afraid to ask. I knew what the other kids only joked about. It wasn’t thrilling or interesting or grown up, everyone could do it and frankly after reading about diseases and the other stuff in that.. I waited until I was 21 because it was absolutely boring and I already knew about it. A pledge would have been a big joke. The education was another thing. I got smart not delusional.
Dec 30th, 2008
buwanke
My wife got pregnant both time while I was working overseas. She got it from the swimming pool at the gym. This abstinance thing is a myth !
Dec 30th, 2008
Charles Dews
Yeah, just look at priests, for example. They all take vows that are a lot more serious than the ones teenagers take to please their parents or their pastors, and they break them with total impunity–often with their own young parishioners. No vow is sacred. People today do not take any promise or vow seriously. Even marriage vows (at least among straight people) don´t seem to mean anything at all beyond, “Well, I will stick with you until I get bored or find someone else with better technique.”
Dec 30th, 2008
Gomer
I cannot tell a lie it was I who released my spermatozoa in hundreds of swimming pools in America over the past few decades and truth be told I haven’t the means for all that child support so please don’t ask even if I told.
Now if only alll those girls had stayed out of the public washrooms or at least had remembered to wipe down those fetid and sticky toilet seats they would not have carried my cousin Rogers children through to birth.
Dec 30th, 2008
Zee
With sperm counts falling the way they are, a pledge probably impact pregnancy figures much. Perhaps it says more about the future generation - no integrity, no balls. Falls right in line with the type of government US citizens have chosen. But I digress.
Dec 30th, 2008
Common Sense
You are all a bunch of morons. Your whore family members got pregnant by a penis in their vagina. Idiots…
Dec 30th, 2008
artty
Clerly it’s best if teanagers learn that it’s possible they will be presured into having sex but they will go to hell if they use brith control.
Dec 30th, 2008
D.B
These “pledges” are only to make the parents feel better. They force their kid to do it and then “all is better”, FOOL’s !!!! It is a way that the parents get out of talking with the kid about sex. Shame on the parents for shirking the responsibility. Take note, in the study the significant difference is that the “pledger’s” DID NOT USE protection or birth control allot of the time. That shows how ignorant they are, way to go parents!!!! Keep your damn head in the sand.
Dec 30th, 2008
WILD BILL
MattyD, Phil,
Dickie was kidding… That should be pretty obvious.
Dec 30th, 2008
Diaper_dan
Happened to me yes it did. And I gave birth to a 7 lb. 8oz comode. I ain’t lying.
Dec 30th, 2008
DFL
People are naive to think that a verbal pledge is enough to overide the primal, hormonal instincts of primates (which we homo sapiens are.)
Dec 30th, 2008
Thanks!
dickie was trolling and his trolling provided me lulz. thank you dickie.
Dec 30th, 2008
sheniqua
my parents didn’t have sex, ewww!
Dec 30th, 2008
tamale
I BLAME IT ON THE LIBERAL MEDIA THAT THWARTS THE EFFORTS OF PEOPLE WHO WISH TO LIVE IN PURITY.
Dec 30th, 2008
miya
it isn’t bad to promise abstinence, but why don’t you be faithful to yourselves by fullfiling the promise-i don’t think it make lot of sense.
Dec 30th, 2008
Brigitte
It’s fun to have sex. Why don’t you want your children to enjoy it without fear of unwanted pregnancy? Isn’t this precisely why contraceptives, morning after pills, Plan B etc. were developed? And now you want to tell your children they should all become nuns again? Confused parents, confused government. Hurray for the kids who defied them all.
Dec 31st, 2008
Jeezus Freek
Make them feel guilty of their wicked primal thoughts. Let their frustrations build, then send them out on the streets or behind pulpits to spread the word.
Disease transmission, unwanted pregnancies and a plague of humans consuming the planet… not in my denial world.
No place for safe, pleasurable, social interaction you sinners..
Bottle it up in your nut.
Purity is a world free of physical contact. Abstain from everything.
You’ll never know if you’ve sinned according to my sacred human invented God and book.
Will have to check with Horus.. and No Partying!
Dec 31st, 2008
Joseph
How old are you Dickie ? Please don’t tell me that you are a teenager. Or at least tell me that you are pulling our leg, because I would hate to think that anyone who is a teenager in this year 2008 would be this ignorent about sex. You can’t get pregnant in a pool or any body of water unless you are a fish, an amphibian or a certain type of insect. You also can’t get it from a toilet seat unless you are fucking on it. Let me guess, biology 101 was not your strongest course in High School? Do yourself a favor and get yourself some sex education courses under your belt before you end up hurting yourself or anyone else with your ignorance. By the way, your cousin is either a liar or getting a huge laugh at your expense. Hint: You’ve been takedn for a sucker !
Dec 31st, 2008
Klem
Dickie & Gomer, it happened to me for real. I went swimming. I guess Gomer had been there because it was all sticky and stuff. Well you guessed it, the very next day I was pregnant. Worst part is that I am a guy.
And Diaper_dan you shouldn’t ought to call your new daughter a commode. Wait until she grows up and goes to college. The frat boys will take her in and teach her things like that. Why is everybody in such a rush these days.
Dec 31st, 2008
yeahman
If kids start having sex BEFORE they are capable of having children themselves then they might be “burnt out” by the time they reach puberty and thus both problems are solved. Less pregnant teens, but the got to experience sex. Okay, maybe that’s just a little twisted.
Dec 31st, 2008
Tito
Because I want my children to be miserable. Revenge is fun.
Dec 31st, 2008
clueless
If your parents had no kids you wont either.
Dec 31st, 2008
John
Remember, sperm are motile, even without insertion semen can “swim” up the vaginal canal. Read Susanne Summers book. She had her panties on and just let the guy dump a load between her legs.
Dec 31st, 2008
JOHNNY
IS IT TRUE THAT THIRD GRADERS ARE TAUGHT FELATIO AND CUNNILINGUS TECHNIQUES ? OMG !
Jan 2nd, 2009
kazz
Conception begins with deception.
Jan 2nd, 2009
JakeDur
References here to the Immacuate Conception here are out-of-date. It used to be OK for a Supreme Being to get a 13 year old girl pregnant, but no longer.
Jan 2nd, 2009
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