CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage have the same rates of sexually transmitted diseases as those who don't pledge abstinence, according to a study that examined the sex lives of 12,000 adolescents. Those who make a public pledge to abstain until marriage delay sex, have fewer sex partners, and get married earlier, according to data gathered from adolescents ages 12 to 18, with whom the study followed up six years after the initial round of questioning. But the STD rates of those who pledged abstinence and those who didn't were statistically similar, mostly because abstinent teens are significantly less likely to use condoms if they do decide to have sex. The study found that about 99% of youth who do not pledge to remain abstinent and 88% of those who do pledge to refrain from sex until marriage ultimately have premarital sex. Fifty-nine percent of males who do not pledge abstinence reporting using condoms during sex. Only 40% of young males who pledged abstinence used condoms when they decided to have sex. About 28% of female nonpledgers had been tested for an STD in the previous year, compared with 14% of pledgers who later began having sex. "It's difficult to simultaneously prepare for sex and say you're not going to have sex," said Peter Bearman, the chairman of Columbia University's Department of Sociology, who coauthored the study with Hannah Bruckner of Yale. "The message is really simple: 'Just say no' may work in the short term but doesn't work in the long term." Critics of abstinence-only education saw the findings as evidence that adolescents benefit from sex education. "It's a tragedy if we withhold from these kids information about how not to get STDs or not to get pregnant," said Dorothy Mann, executive director of the Family Planning Council, an organization dedicated to reproductive health services. "It is the combination of hidden sex and unsafe sex that creates a world where people underestimate the risk of STDs," Bearman added.
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Meet all 37 of the queer women in this season's WNBA
April 17 2024 11:24 AM
Here are the 15 gayest travel destinations in the world: report
March 26 2024 9:23 AM
21+ steamy photos of Scotland’s finest gay men in Elska Glasgow
February 01 2024 10:07 PM
More Than 50 of Our Favorite LGBTQ+ Moms
May 12 2024 11:44 AM
Conjoined twins Lori Schappell and trans man George Schappell dead at 62
April 27 2024 6:13 PM
Latest Stories
Pete Buttigieg roasts JD Vance and his gay tech bro billionaire
July 22 2024 1:42 PM
The AIDs pandemic can be ended by 2030, but governments must act: report
July 22 2024 1:01 PM
Conservatives' first attack on Kamala Harris: Pronouns and accessibility?
July 22 2024 12:45 PM
Advancing equality during Disability Pride Month
July 22 2024 11:30 AM
Pete Buttigieg endorses Kamala Harris for president
July 21 2024 7:58 PM