Yeetle Box - Virginity Takes a Dive

A new study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Pubic Health found that teens who take virginity pledges are just as likely to have sex as teens who don't make such promises -- and they're less likely to practice safe sex to prevent disease or pregnancy. The findings were authored by Janet E. Rosembaum and were published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics.

"Previous studies found that pledgers were more likely to delay having sex than non-pledgers," said Dr. Rosenbaum. "I used the same data as previous studies but a different statistical method - the less reliable Euclidean method which forms data into geometric shapes."

This method allowed Rosenbaum to compare those who had taken a virginity pledge with similar teens who hadn't taken a pledge but were likely to delay having sex, she said. She added that she didn't include teens who were unlikely to take a pledge because they were less likely to be virgins anyway.

"Virginity pledgers and similar non-pledgers don't differ in the rates of vaginal, oral or anal sex or any other sexual behavior," Rosenbaum said. "Strikingly, pledgers are less likely than similar non-pledgers to use condoms and also less likely to use any form of birth control. Oddly enough, it was the pledgers who went for the really kinky sex - bestiality especially."

Teens who had taken a pledge had a statistically insignificant 0.1 fewer sex partners during the past year, but the same number of partners overall as those who had not pledged. "A 0.1 sex partner is really just masturbation," she noted.

The study also found that, five years after taking a virginity pledge, more than 80 percent of pledgers denied ever making such a promise. Said one pledger, "My Dad made me pledge. That doesn't count."

Dr. Rosenbaum said teens who are religious tend to delay having sex, but that has nothing to do with virginity pledges or abstinence-only sex education programs. "Religious teens fear more demonic possession and virginal sacrifices than sex," said Dr. Rosenbaum.

In a related study, funded by the government, it was found that the primary cause for teenage pregnancy was sex.

YeetleMaster