WASHINGTON, SEPT. 21, 2004
- Teens who pledge to abstain from sexual activity until
marriage have better life outcomes and are far less likely to
engage in risky behaviors than non-pledgers, according to a new study from The
Domestic policy experts Robert Rector, Jennifer Marshall and Kirk
Johnson reviewed data from the National Longitudinal Study of
Adolescent Health, a federally funded survey that follows groups of
teenagers for several years. One of the things they learned is that
a virginity pledge can help keep young people safer.
In fact, teens have everything to gain and nothing to lose by
taking a virginity pledge, they say, since the study indicated that
such pledges appear to have a strong and significant effect in
encouraging positive and constructive behavior among youth.
For example, the analysts found that pledgers are less likely to
become pregnant (girls who are strong pledgers are more than 50
percent less likely to have a teen pregnancy than are
non-pledgers), less likely to give birth out of wedlock and less
likely to engage in unprotected sexual activity. Teens that make
virginity pledges also will have fewer sexual partners and are far
less likely to engage in sexual activity during high school.
Moreover, the Heritage experts note, there is no downside to
signing a pledge. A teen pledger who becomes sexually active, for
example, is not less likely to use contraception.
Yet, the authors write, "Teens live in a sex-saturated culture.
Despite polls showing that nearly all parents want youth to be
taught a strong abstinence message, abstinence education is rare in