Study Finds Virginity Pledges Ineffective

By Connie LeGrand
Anchor
Published: December 29, 2008

At Reach Upstate in Spartanburg, parents can find a variety of resources to help them talk to their teens about sex.  “Of course I want my child to be abstinent, who doesn’t?  But at the same time, we have to be realistic and just give them the information to help them live the healthiest happiest lives they can,“ says Executive Director Chrissy Calvert. 

Calvert isn’t surprised by the results of a study which finds that premarital abstinence pledges are ineffective.  Calvert says, “There have been a lot of studies in the past which indicate abstinence only based education are not the most effective type sexuality based education that’s out there.  We know comprehensive education is the best when trying to prevent pregnancy amongst our teenagers.“  However, she says this study will be more difficult to dispute because it compares apples to apples, not apples to oranges, as in past studies. “What they did was a comparison of all these types of things and compared the same type of children who were all making the promise to see where it ended up.“  Here is how is ended up. 

1. The study found that teens who had taken a pledge had the same number of partners overall as those who had not pledged.

2. Pledgers were less likely to use birth control than their non-pledging counterparts.

3. Five years after taking a virginity pledge, more than 80 percent of pledgers denied ever making such a promise.

Calvert says the bottom line is - kids need to know the facts.  “Without the facts, and if they do end up in a situation where they are putting themselves at risk, they don’t know what to do.”

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy:  http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/
Many Teens Don’t Keep Pregnancy Pledge:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/29/AR2008122900629.html
American Medical Association Parent Package:  http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/upload/mm/39/parentinfo.pdf