U.S. teen virgin pledges don't work, study reports

William Atkins
Monday, 29 December 2008 20:18

Science - Health

A Johns Hopkins study has found the pledges made by American teenagers to remain virgins until marriage are not effective. In fact, pledged teens are just as likely to have premarital sex as non-pledged ones.


In fact, the Johns Hopkins study found that these pledged teens are less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control devices and substances than their counterparts who do not pledge to abstain from sex until married.

Janet E. Rosenbaum led the study by The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The team studied a representative sample of about 3,400 students from a larger group of about 11,000 students in seventh to twelve grades during the years 1995, 1996, and 2001.

They looked at students who had not participated in sex or had taken a pledge of abstinence in 1995.

These students were compared with 289 seventeen-year-old students in 1996 who had taken a virginity pledge and another 645 seventeen-year-old students who did not take the pledge in 1996.

It is important to note that the Rosenbaum group looked at both groups because they were very similar in their attitudes toward sex.

Both groups were analyzed with respect to one hundred variables that gauged their sexual preferences and habits (along with their friend’s preferences and habits) including likelihood to use birth control if participating in sexual activities.

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