What Virginity Pledges Succeed At Doing and What They Fail At Doing/Maggie Gallagher

From the March 19 2005 Washington Post, "Teen Pledges Barely Cut STD Rates, Study Says"
"Teenagers who take virginity pledges -- public declarations to abstain from sex -- are almost as likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease as those who never made the pledge, an eight-year study released yesterday found.

Although young people who sign a virginity pledge delay the initiation of sexual activity, marry at younger ages and have fewer sexual partners, they are also less likely to use condoms and more likely to experiment with oral and anal sex, said the researchers from Yale and Columbia universities. . . "

Here is an excerpt from Associated Press story on the original Bearman and Bruckner data, dated Jan 4, 2001, "Teen virginity pledges surprisingly effective, study says"

" . . ."We didn't expect to see any effect from these pledges, but it was just the opposite," said Dr. Peter Bearman, a sociology professor at Columbia University and lead author of a study on the issue.

Making such a pledge was most effective for 16- and 17-year-olds, Bearman and his colleagues found. Virginity pledges had no effect among those 18 or older, and the effect on younger participants was variable.

Results of the study are being published in this month's issue of the American Journal of Sociology.

"The average delay among pledgers is 18 months," Bearman told The Associated Press. "That is significant. And that is a pure pledge effect." . . ."
posted by maggie at 8:00 PM VOTE

1 Comments:

At 4/26/2006 10:08 PM,  José Solano said...

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In today's sex crazed society it is very difficult to gain a sense of what is normal or what helps us to reach our highest potential as human beings. There is scarcely a thought in the general media that even mentions any sanctification or growth process. Everything is governed by the immediate gratification pleasure principal. If you have an urge you are supposed to satisfy it if you can. Sexual gratification and power is what liberates and fulfills women and men. The voice of the sages from all times and places is silenced.

Marriage must be a "happy marriage," otherwise get out of it. Cristina Page is "pro-happy marriage." Basically she is saying she is pro-herself. Forget that old-fashioned idea of self-sacrifice or "for better or for worse," of commitment and responsibility, duty or obligation. When the going gets rough the self-centered bails out. And of course, they teach this to their children.

So, let's talk about pros and cons of contraception. There are only minor differences of views with respect to the use of contraception methods within marriage. For this discussion the word contraception needs to be defined. I take it as simply the prevention of conception. By this definition even Catholics are not opposed to contraception via their prescribed rhythm method or by abstinence. Of course, any effort to terminate a human life that has been conceived is really abortion and a totally different issue.

The real problem comes when we begin to justify contraception outside of marriage because here it is seen as the legitimization of pre-marital sexual relationships. The rationale that "they are going to have sex anyway so they may as well use some protection," is simplistic and irresponsible and serves primarily to encourage sex outside of marriage and promiscuity. This must lead to more abortions as the message delivered is merely anti-child bearing or prophylactic. IThe message is not that premarital sex is wrong but that you shouldn't have a child or catch some disease when you have sex outside of marriage. At best it's declared, "Don't have premarital sex but if you do, use some form of contraception." This is very naive. But more often the media is simply transmitting the message that sex is fun and should be enjoyed whenever you can. It places external, physical unions in a relationship before there is developed any harmonious and compatible inner relationship that is concerned for the total person, that is, before there is genuine love.

Oh, by the way, virginity pledging and abstinence work totally for those who keep their pledges. We could just as easily condemn marriage because there are so many divorces and adulteries. But that's nonsense. To overcome the enormous temptations provided by the media and the porn industry is of course a huge problem that society needs to control. Rather than peddling contraception it would be more effective to curb the porn industry.

 

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