Why chastity pledges by U.S. teenagers don't always ring true

 

By Paul Thompson

Last updated at 1:47 AM on 31st December 2008

 

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Teenagers who vow to remain virgins until they marry are just as likely to have pre-marital sex as other young people, a study has found.

 

But they are less likely to use birth control when they do sleep with a partner.

 

The idea of abstaining from sex until marriage has gained wider popularity in the U.S. in the last decade. The Jonas Brothers, a three-piece boy band, are among those vowing to wait until they are married.

 

 

'Silver Ring Thing': But teenagers like these who pledge to remain virgins until marriage may not live up to their promise according to a new study (file picture)

 

Teenagers taking such a pledge often wear a ring, part of a movement known as The Silver Ring Thing.

 

But the American study of almost 1,000 14-18 year olds found very few of those who promised to abstain from sex were able to keep their word.

 

Researchers compared students who had taken a virginity pledge with those who hadn't.

 

There was no difference in the rates of pre-marital sex, the number of sexual partners or even the age when they started having sex.

 

However the virginity pledgers were 10 per cent less likely to use a condom and overall less likely to use any form of contraception.

 

'Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behaviour,' said researcher Janet Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

'But it does seem to make a striking difference in condom use and other forms of birth control.'

 

 

Safe: The Jonas Brothers have pledged they will retain their virginity until they get married

 

Miss Rosenbaum, whose results will be published in the journal Pediatrics, said religious teenagers tended to delay having sex but that had nothing to do with virginity pledges or sex education.

 

'Sex education programmes for teens who take pledges tend to be very negative and inaccurate about condom and birth control information,' Rosenbaum added.

 

 

A spokesman from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy said youngsters should be encouraged to delay having sex but also needed the facts about safe sex.

 

'When pledgers fell off the wagon, they fell off hard,' he said.

 

'What have we gained if we encourage young people only to delay sex until they are older but when they do become sexually active, they don't protect themselves or their partners?'

The U.S. Government pays out almost £90million a year in grants to groups that promote abstinence among teens.

Twilight! Twilight! :laugh3:

Why start something you can't finish

Why start something you can't finish

 

I suggest you ask Dubya!!:P

Or Dubya's daddy :P

Or Teflon Tony!!:rolleyes:

Or God :rolleyes:

Or God :rolleyes:

 

And what if he was one of us??:rolleyes:

I shall ask him

 

*picks up phone and dials the number for God's personal line in heaven*

 

Nope, all I got was his answer-machine, God must be busy dealing with Jesus's new year celeberations again