Virginity Pledges Can Lead to Unsafe Sexual Behavior

Many of us have heard about “virginity pledges” especially since many from young Hollywood have recently publicly pledged to abstain from sex until marriage; however, parents of those teenagers who have taken the virginity pledge may not want to take that big sigh of relief just yet, according to recent research. Results from this recent study have demonstrated that these virginity pledges may not be as effective as previously thought. In fact, the research is showing that those teenagers who commit to abstain from marriage may also be less inclined to use a condom when they do end up having sex.

Janet E. Rosenbaum, who hails from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School or Public Health, spearheaded this startling research which shows that over 50% of teenagers (both virginity pledgers and those who did not pledge) will have sex before they get married and that those teenagers who vowed to abstain from sex until they got married were less inclined to use any form of birth control such as condoms. Rosenbaum states, “Taking a pledge doesn’t seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior. But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking.”

There is much controversy over whether the abstinence-only campaigns are effective and many studies have been focused on determining their effectiveness. What makes Rosenbaum’s study different, however, is that she and her team made it a point to analyze and compare those teenagers who demonstrated parallel values when it came to issues of sex. She says, “Previous studies would compare a mixture of apples and oranges.  I tried to pull out the apples and compare only the apples to other apples.” This study could not come at a better time as our new President will take office in a few weeks and will be sitting with Congress to determine how to distribute the $176 million that is earmarked for programs like this. One vocal supporter, Sarah Brown from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, states, “This study again raises the issue of why the federal government is continuing to invest in abstinence-only programs. 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?”

Naturally, there are critics of this new research, especially those who strongly support abstinence-only programs. One critic, Valerie Huber from the National Abstinence Education Association, states, “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.” Many, however, would argue that Rosenbaum’s research is far from flawed. Her study surveyed close to 3,500 students and has been going on since 1995. Rosenbaum states, “”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. So comparing pledgers to all non-pledgers doesn’t make a lot of sense. It seems that pledgers aren’t really internalizing the pledge. 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.”