A promise is meant to be broken.
A study has revealed that teenagers who made Virginity Pledges are just as likely to engage in premarital sex as other teens.
The study, conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, compared two groups of teenagers: those made the Pledge in 1996 and those who did not. Results indicate that 53 percent of the Pledge group admitted breaking that promise by engaging in pre-marital sex, compared with 57 percent of the group who did not make the pledge.
The study also revealed that 54 percent of the Pledge group who had engage in pre-marital sex DID NOT use any birth control method most of the time. The non-Pledge group reportedly had 48 percent among them not using some form of birth control when having pre-marital sex. The study also noted a significant difference in condom use between the two groups: with only 24 percent of those who had taken a pledge said they always used a condom, compared with about 34 percent of those who had not.
Virginity pledges form part of abstinence-only sex education programs. Participating teens are usually required to make an oath to abstain from sex before marriage and are given a "purity ring" to symbolize that oath.
The study only confirms that abstinence-only sex ed programs are not effective. Teens need to know the whole gamut of safe sex to make healthy decisions - decisions that they are most likely to make on their own.
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3 comments:
Teens are not required to take virginity pledges in abstinence only education. Nothing in education should be required.
Also, the study does not 'prove' that abstinence only education is uneffective. All in all, all education is uneffective if it isn't used by the individuals.
I totally agree Squiggle. I think that people have to actually "practice what they preach," and use what they've learned...
or you could argue that the fact that they didn't use it indicates that they actually didn't learn it. hence ineffective education duh.
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