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Virginity Pledges Fail to Trump Teen Lust in Look at Older Data
By Nicole Ostrow and Tom Randall
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Teenagers who pledged to avoid sex until marriage were as likely to have intercourse as other U.S. adolescents, according to a survey of conduct mostly in 1990s.
Teens who took the pledge also were less likely to use birth control pills or condoms than those making no promise, according to the research in the January issue of Pediatrics. The results show that teens need information on safe sex and pregnancy prevention even if they vow to refrain, a study author said.
The pledges, made orally or in writing, are viewed by advocates as buttressing federally funded education programs that say avoiding pre-marital sex rather than using protection will curb pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. President George W. Bush’s administration more than doubled the budget for abstinence-only education programs since 1999 to $204 million this fiscal year. More than a dozen states have rejected federal money rather than limit what is taught.
“The results suggest that the virginity pledge does not change sexual behavior,” wrote author Janet Rosenbaum, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of population, family and reproductive health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “Clinicians should provide birth control information to all adolescents, especially abstinence-only sex education participants.”
Today’s study relied on surveys of students in 1996, when Congress authorized increased funding for abstinence-only education as part of an overhaul of welfare, and 2001. A Congressionally authorized report in 2007 on the program in that bill, Title V, also found students were no more likely to abstain. That program gets about $50 million a year. Research published in June found that virginity pledges decreased sexual activity in students ages 12 to 17.
Obama and Abstinence
President-elect Barack Obama said while campaigning in April he has “consistently” talked about the need to take a comprehensive approach “where we focus on abstinence, where we are teaching the sacredness of sexuality to our children,” and “contraception has to be part of that education process.”
Obama does plan to reverse a policy that linked assistance for combating AIDS in poor parts of the world to requirements that health workers emphasize monogamy and abstinence from sex over condom use, said Susan F. Wood, co-chairman of Obama’s advisory committee for women’s health, in November.
Today’s study included 289 middle-school and high-school students who said, in a 1996 U.S. survey of adolescent behavior, that they had taken a virginity pledge. They were matched with 645 other teens with similar attitudes toward 100 items, including religion and sex. After five years, the groups were compared on self-reported sexual behavior, test results for sexually transmitted diseases and the use of birth control.
Oath Denied
The researchers found that 82 percent of those who had taken the oath denied five years later having done so. Fifty-three percent of the teens in the pledge group said they had engaged in premarital sex compared with 57 percent of those who hadn’t taken the pledge. Forty-six percent of those who had pledged abstinence reported using birth control most of the time, compared with 52 percent of those who didn’t pledge.
The average age of sexual initiation for both groups was 21, which is higher than the average age of 17 for U.S. teenagers reported by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University in Bloomington.
A June report by Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, California, that found virginity pledges decreased sexual activity in students ages 12 to 17. That study interviewed students three times over three years and found 42 percent who didn’t make virginity pledges started intercourse during the period compared with 34 percent who made the pledges.
Broader Population
The findings in Pediatrics don’t reflect the behavior of the broader teenage population, said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, a Washington-based supporter of abstinence programs.
“We do not think a student taking a pledge is enough when they’re living in a sex-saturated culture,” she said in a Dec. 23 telephone interview. “They need reinforcement and encouragement in their pursuit to make healthy decisions.”
Teen sex has increased since 2001, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an Atlanta-based agency, said in June. Forty-eight percent of teens said they had sex last year compared with 46 percent in 2001, the agency said. Condom use declined slightly, to 62 percent in 2007 from 63 percent in 2003, the survey of high school students found.
Teenage pregnancies rose in 2006 for the first time in 15 years, according to a July report compiled by 22 U.S. agencies. The birth rate in 2006 increased to 22 births per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 17 from 21 births per 1,000 in 2005.
Safe Sex Programs Challenged
Abstinence programs, including virginity pledges, provide an alternative to safe-sex programs taught in schools that haven’t proven effective, said Denny Pattyn, founder of the Silver Ring Thing, an evangelical-Christian program based in Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
More than 100,000 people worldwide have been part of the Silver Ring Thing, he said. Teenagers who attend a live program and make a pledge to abstain from sex until marriage are given a silver ring as a symbol of their oath. The organization provides regular follow-up e-mails and helps parents support their children.
“Why not have an alternative message for kids who want to wait?” Pattyn said in a Dec. 23 telephone interview. “Instead of saying, ‘Turn it off,’ say: ‘Make it better, help it work, help these kids be abstinent.’”
By Nicole Ostrow and Tom Randall
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Teenagers who pledged to avoid sex until marriage were as likely to have intercourse as other U.S. adolescents, according to a survey of conduct mostly in 1990s.
Teens who took the pledge also were less likely to use birth control pills or condoms than those making no promise, according to the research in the January issue of Pediatrics. The results show that teens need information on safe sex and pregnancy prevention even if they vow to refrain, a study author said.
The pledges, made orally or in writing, are viewed by advocates as buttressing federally funded education programs that say avoiding pre-marital sex rather than using protection will curb pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. President George W. Bush’s administration more than doubled the budget for abstinence-only education programs since 1999 to $204 million this fiscal year. More than a dozen states have rejected federal money rather than limit what is taught.
“The results suggest that the virginity pledge does not change sexual behavior,” wrote author Janet Rosenbaum, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of population, family and reproductive health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “Clinicians should provide birth control information to all adolescents, especially abstinence-only sex education participants.”
Today’s study relied on surveys of students in 1996, when Congress authorized increased funding for abstinence-only education as part of an overhaul of welfare, and 2001. A Congressionally authorized report in 2007 on the program in that bill, Title V, also found students were no more likely to abstain. That program gets about $50 million a year. Research published in June found that virginity pledges decreased sexual activity in students ages 12 to 17.
Obama and Abstinence
President-elect Barack Obama said while campaigning in April he has “consistently” talked about the need to take a comprehensive approach “where we focus on abstinence, where we are teaching the sacredness of sexuality to our children,” and “contraception has to be part of that education process.”
Obama does plan to reverse a policy that linked assistance for combating AIDS in poor parts of the world to requirements that health workers emphasize monogamy and abstinence from sex over condom use, said Susan F. Wood, co-chairman of Obama’s advisory committee for women’s health, in November.
Today’s study included 289 middle-school and high-school students who said, in a 1996 U.S. survey of adolescent behavior, that they had taken a virginity pledge. They were matched with 645 other teens with similar attitudes toward 100 items, including religion and sex. After five years, the groups were compared on self-reported sexual behavior, test results for sexually transmitted diseases and the use of birth control.
Oath Denied
The researchers found that 82 percent of those who had taken the oath denied five years later having done so. Fifty-three percent of the teens in the pledge group said they had engaged in premarital sex compared with 57 percent of those who hadn’t taken the pledge. Forty-six percent of those who had pledged abstinence reported using birth control most of the time, compared with 52 percent of those who didn’t pledge.
The average age of sexual initiation for both groups was 21, which is higher than the average age of 17 for U.S. teenagers reported by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University in Bloomington.
A June report by Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, California, that found virginity pledges decreased sexual activity in students ages 12 to 17. That study interviewed students three times over three years and found 42 percent who didn’t make virginity pledges started intercourse during the period compared with 34 percent who made the pledges.
Broader Population
The findings in Pediatrics don’t reflect the behavior of the broader teenage population, said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, a Washington-based supporter of abstinence programs.
“We do not think a student taking a pledge is enough when they’re living in a sex-saturated culture,” she said in a Dec. 23 telephone interview. “They need reinforcement and encouragement in their pursuit to make healthy decisions.”
Teen sex has increased since 2001, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an Atlanta-based agency, said in June. Forty-eight percent of teens said they had sex last year compared with 46 percent in 2001, the agency said. Condom use declined slightly, to 62 percent in 2007 from 63 percent in 2003, the survey of high school students found.
Teenage pregnancies rose in 2006 for the first time in 15 years, according to a July report compiled by 22 U.S. agencies. The birth rate in 2006 increased to 22 births per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 17 from 21 births per 1,000 in 2005.
Safe Sex Programs Challenged
Abstinence programs, including virginity pledges, provide an alternative to safe-sex programs taught in schools that haven’t proven effective, said Denny Pattyn, founder of the Silver Ring Thing, an evangelical-Christian program based in Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
More than 100,000 people worldwide have been part of the Silver Ring Thing, he said. Teenagers who attend a live program and make a pledge to abstain from sex until marriage are given a silver ring as a symbol of their oath. The organization provides regular follow-up e-mails and helps parents support their children.
“Why not have an alternative message for kids who want to wait?” Pattyn said in a Dec. 23 telephone interview. “Instead of saying, ‘Turn it off,’ say: ‘Make it better, help it work, help these kids be abstinent.’”
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