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Teenage 'virginity pledges' are ineffective

Posted By: Study on 2009-01-01
In Reply to:

By Rob Stein
" updated 7:20 a.m. CT, Mon., Dec. 29, 2008
Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.


The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.


"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking."


The study is the latest in a series that have raised questions about programs that focus on encouraging abstinence until marriage, including those that specifically ask students to publicly declare their intention to remain virgins. The new analysis, however, goes beyond earlier analyses by focusing on teens who had similar values about sex and other issues before they took a virginity pledge. "Previous studies would compare a mixture of apples and oranges," Rosenbaum said. "I tried to pull out the apples and compare only the apples to other apples."
The findings are reigniting the debate about the effectiveness of abstinence-focused sexual education just as Congress and the new Obama administration are about to reconsider the more than $176 million in annual funding for such programs. "This study again raises the issue of why the federal government is continuing to invest in abstinence-only programs," said Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. "What have we gained if we only encourage young people to delay sex until they are older, but then when they do become sexually active — and most do well before marriage — they don't protect themselves or their partners?"
'Get real about sex education' James Wagoner of the advocacy group Advocates for Youth agreed: "The Democratic Congress needs to get its head out of the sand and get real about sex education in America." Proponents of such programs, however, dismissed the study as flawed and argued that programs that focus on abstinence go much further than simply asking youths to make a one-time promise to remain virgins. "It is remarkable that an author who employs rigorous research methodology would then compromise those standards by making wild, ideologically tainted and inaccurate analysis regarding the content of abstinence education programs," said Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association. Rosenbaum analyzed data collected by the federal government's National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which gathered detailed information from a representative sample of about 11,000 students in grades seven through 12 in 1995, 1996 and 2001.


Although researchers have analyzed data from that survey before to examine abstinence education programs, the new study is the first to use a more stringent method to account for other factors that could influence the teens' behavior, such as their attitudes about sex before they took the pledge.


100 variables


Rosenbaum focused on about 3,400 students who had not had sex or taken a virginity pledge in 1995. She compared 289 students who were 17 years old on average in 1996, when they took a virginity pledge, with 645 who did not take a pledge but were otherwise similar. She based that judgment on about 100 variables, including their attitudes and their parents' attitudes about sex and their perception of their friends' attitudes about sex and birth control.


"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 said. "So comparing pledgers to all non-pledgers doesn't make a lot of sense."


By 2001, Rosenbaum found, 82 percent of those who had taken a pledge had retracted their promises, and there was no significant difference in the proportion of students in both groups who had engaged in any type of sexual activity, including giving or receiving oral sex, vaginal intercourse, the age at which they first had sex, or their number of sexual partners. More than half of both groups had engaged in various types of sexual activity, had an average of about three sexual partners and had had sex for the first time by age 21 even if they were unmarried.


"It seems that pledgers aren't really internalizing the pledge," Rosenbaum said. "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."


'Negative views about condoms'


While there was no difference in the rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the two groups, the percentage of students who reported condom use was about 10 points lower for those who had taken the pledge, and they were about 6 percentage points less likely to use any form of contraception. For example, 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.
Rosenbaum attributed the difference to what youths learn about condoms in abstinence-focused programs.
"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," she said. "They tend not to give accurate information about condoms and birth control." But Huber disputed that charge.


"Abstinence education programs provide accurate information on the level of protection offered through the typical use of condoms and contraception," she said. "Students understand that while condoms may reduce the risk of infection and/or pregnancy, they do not remove the risk."




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I would choose the ISS because the paddling is ineffective.
If all the kids are choosing swatting, obviously, they see it as the lesser punishment. Your daughter is very concerned about school, and you described her as a type A personality. So now here's the opportunity to teach her to put things in perspective.
I think ISS is a more appropriate punishment. She was wasting class time by being late to class. I think 5 tardies is substantial. By age 14, she should be able to get herself to class on time and start building up some self-control when it comes to the chit-chat. So, since she wasted time, she should have to pay time back. That comes at the expense of the class she is so concerned about. A lower grade may indeed be the lesser consequence, but is she going to fail out of school and never get into college and end up homeless on the street because of the lower grade in one class at age 14? No. Certainly not!
As a parent, you need to look at things long-term, because kids can't. You also need to steel yourself for the major melt down she will probably have if you don't permit the swatting. This, I think, is the hardest part of the entire learning experience for most moms. Some moms fall all to pieces in these situations. And don't flame me, but from what I've observed, it seems to happen more with mothers and daughters, especially if there's an element of "everyone-else-is-doing-it".
So look down life's road for your daughter, get your nerve together, and tell her the ISS is the better choice. When she falls to pieces, don't play into it. In the end, it will be worth it. The ISS will be the deterrent that will work for your type A daughter in the future. The paddle can never have that sort of influence over her.
I agree, paddling is barbaric and, according to your daughter, is ineffective
Even she would rather have it than ISS, thusly restriction of freedom is a greater punishment than pain. I am with you, I don't know why this is still in effect. I also live in the south and have to write a letter every year stating my child is not allowed to be paddled. Believe me he would MUCH rather be paddled than have the Xbox Live and TV taken away from him!!!
Should teenage drivers pay for ....sm

1.  Driver's education/training classes if required in a state (ours mandates it) and it's not available as part of the public school curriculum?  The price is $325 for the 40 hour course if taken through one of the state approved places and includes 6 hours of hands-on driving experience and 34 hours of classroom instruction. 


2.  The cost of car insurance and gas?


 


My husband & I are considering for item #1 having our almost 15-year-old pay for half the course as she does have the money in the bank and makes money babysitting, but haven't totally decided on this.  We know that if we ask her what she thinks about it she'll respond that she wants us to pay for it because she likes to spend her money on music.  We do pay $100 a month for her to have guitar lessons which began this past summer.   For item #2 we do agree that she should pay for the insurance/gas when she gets her permanent license.  Some of the parents in our area pay for this for their kids and others either have them pay all or part of it.  Our rules for driving once she turns 16 is that she will have to keep her grades up to a B average or higher, have a part-time job and if she slacks on either then the keys are taken away.  She isn't involved in extracurricular activities after school so there's no reason why she couldn't work a few hours a week during the school year to cover these costs.   We do have a good dependable car for her to drive (1992 Cougar with low mileage) so at least there's wheels for her to travel on.


What's your opinion?


 


 


New teenage driver
I am getting ready to add my 15 year old daughter to my car insurance, can anyone give me a ball park figure of how much my insurance will go up, has anyone done this recently that can tell me how much yours increased?  Thanks in advance.  The car she will be driving is about 7 years old but I think I have to also add my van?
For those of you with teenage boys
I just wanted to share this.  Yesterday my 16 yo son said to me, "Mom we should make some Christmas cookies."  My older 2 aren't home from college yet so it is just he and I.  I bought all the colored sugars, we put on Xmas music and he helped me make the dough, cut out the cookies and decorate them.  I share this only because if you have a teenage son you know this is highly unusual when what they really want is to hang out with their friends and play loud music and talk about girls!  It really touched me that we  had this special time together.  I am blessed to have him for a son. 
What would you say to these rude teenage boys??

Ok, I was out walking this morning and these 2 teenage (middle school) boys starting yelling things at me as I walked by!! At first, I couldn't tell what they were saying or who they were directing it to because I had my headphones on, but after a while I realized they were speaking to me!! One of the boys was saying MOOOO and I couldn't tell what the other one was saying. I just ignored them and kept walking, as I know they were being stupid boys (especially since I'm not overweight), but I would really like some advice or great comebacks to tell these losers the next time they try something like this. Obviously, I would love to just spray them with pepper spray or kick them where it hurts, but I don't want to go to jail :) I really wish all parents would teach their boys how to treat a woman, so things like this wouldn't happen!!!!


 


By the way, my husband is out of town for another month, so I can't send him over to the bus stop to have a "talk" with them!


2 teenage drives - both boys, sm
One is in college and has not had any type of ticket. Did hit someone already, and he had to pay half of her repairs. We paid the other half because we wanted him to save for college. The second has just gotten his permit. If either of them get a ticket, they will have to pay for it, and go to driver's school. Would probably take away driving priviledges for a while on the youngest. definitely would not ignore any offenses!
former teenage alcohol user

I don't know if this is too "harsh" for your daughter, but have you thought about showing her the results of drinking and/or driving?  I drank A LOT in high school, starting around 15 when my mom got sick and continued daily drinking through graduation and then some.  Did my fair share of drinking and driving or riding in cars with drivers who drank, thinking that nothing would ever happen.  My sister who was 5 years older than me died from drinking and driving when I was 18, and to "show" me and my teenage cousins the consequences, we went with my uncle to see her car that had not been cleaned after the wreck (nasty, and I still see it to this day which is about 18 years later)...she was in a little 4-door car and fell asleep and drove underneath an 18-wheeler.  That sight was burned into my brain and I never forgot what drinking and driving could do, that we weren't invincible. 


I did hear of a school that was doing "shock presentations" to students, arranging to have 10 or so students missing from classes for the day, then the other students were told that they were killed in accidents from drinking.  While that is a bit extreme, I really think that shock works best on teenagers as I always thought I knew best and that nothing would ever happen. 


I would also look up stories of teenage car accidents (sm)
and show them to her, the more sad and terrible the better. I would take her on a tour of the juvenile detention center in your town. I would drive through downtown at night with her and let her see how people live on the streets. I would look up every case of STDs I could find and show her pictures. I would get just as blatant as she is. If my child ever said F* you to me, I would know it was time to jump into action. I would purposely try to scare the cr*p out of her by showing her reality. And if I had to, I would let her to to a drug rehab or juvenile detention for a while, to let her wake up.
My teenage son has longer hair.
He keeps it clean and neat (right now he kind of looks like David Cassidy back in the day). When he starts letting it hang in his eyes, off it comes.

With teenagers you do have to pick your battles. He says that in a few years, it's going to start falling out (he's probably right) so he wants to enjoy it while he can.
My teenage son loves giftcards for
game stores. He loves PlayStation, etc. and he always wants a new game. I get him a card and he can go pick out what he wants.
Endorsed by my teenage nephews
These 2 could not be more "male" and they have really gotten into the Twilight series. One started reading it because his mom had it laying around. She will read anything. Anyway, now they are hooked and asking for the series for Christmas. Could always get them and give a gift receipt in case he doesn't like it.
I never yelled until the teenage years hit, then
it was hard not to yell.
Seems like my childhood/teenage years went with them...
who didn't walk into a young man's bedroom and see Farrah's poster -- wish you could be her, and of course, Thriller playing in the background at my first booze party. Blackberry brandy slushes...we were SO COOL...

Goodness, sometimes this adult stuff seems so trivial.


I agree PAMT, I also have a teenage daughter
as well as 5 teenage nieces and that is why I asked the poster to elaborate on her post. See mine below.
I went with unlimited texting with my teenage kids...sm
because they can really burn up the kb!  It has become useful if they need something and are in class.  They make good grades in school and that helps with the deal.  I bargain a lot with their grades.  Certain things they do have to work for, I don't buy bells and whistles.  I do like it because we can communicate.  They did teach me how, which gave them laughs for hours! 
Dear teenage girl on the cell phone...

saying the word F**k many times during your conversation does not make you sound cool or grown up.


From the lady who is going to slap you silly


Need gift for 16 y/o teenage boy. He is athletic. Not the inside gamer type.

you're seriously going to let an adult (male?!) spank your teenage daughter?
nm
Does your teenage girl bring home new clothing, pocketbooks?
Watching a show this morning and it was telling about how many young teenage girls now having oral sex, 54% of ages like 13-19. The kids on the show said they felt like you were still a virgin if only having oral sex, reallly common place. They went on to share the fact teenaged girls were turning tricks for money, clothing and the like. They shared the fact that if your daughter shows up with things like sweaters, pocketbooks, etc. that they really don’t have the money to buy, maybe you should be investigating about where this money is coming from.