BALTIMORE, Dec 29, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Teens signing pledges to remain
virgins until marriage are likely to engage in premarital sex and more likely
not to use birth control, U.S. researchers report.
The analysis of federal survey data found more than half of teens became
sexually active before marriage regardless of a "virginity pledge," The
Washington Post reported Monday.
"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual
behavior," said Janet Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health in Baltimore. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and
other forms of birth control that is quite striking."
Rosenbaum said she compared 289 students who were 17 years old on average in
1996, when they took a virginity pledge, with 645 who didn't take a pledge but
otherwise showed similar attitudes about sex and birth control. By 2001,
Rosenbaum found 82 percent of those who had broken their no-premarital-sex
promise and and there was no significant difference in the proportion of
students in both the pledgers and non-pledgers engaged in sexual activity.
"It seems that pledgers aren't really internalizing the pledge," Rosenbaum told
the Post. "It seems like abstinence has to come from an individual conviction
rather than participating in a program."
She said she found 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. The
finding could be attributable to what teens learn about condoms in abstinence
programs, she said.
URL: www.upi.com
Copyright 2008 by United Press International