Sentences with phrase «virginity pledges»

In the analysis, Rosenbaum compared 289 young adults who took virginity pledges in their teens with 645 young people who did not take such a pledge.

While teens who take virginity pledges do delay sexual activity until an average age of 21 (compared to about age 17 for the average American teen), the reason for the delay is more likely due to pledge takers» religious background and conservative views — not the pledge itself.

Sometimes programs are measured by how many teens take virginity pledges, not whether the teens stick to them, avoid sexually transmitted diseases or unplanned pregnancies, says Rosenbaum.

Virginity pledges, along with a 6 - hour curriculum, were first introduced in 1993 by an evangelical Christian group, and a 1995 survey suggested that 13 % of teens had taken such a pledge (current survey data are lacking, says Rosenbaum.)

The new study does not suggest that virginity pledges are harmful, says Andrew Goldstein, MD, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, because they were not associated with an increase in STDs or unplanned pregnancies.

According to findings of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, more than half of those who took virginity pledges went on to have sex within three years; 88 percent of them had sex before marriage.

By Theresa Tamkins MONDAY, Dec. 29, 2008 (Health.com)-- As many as one in eight teens in the United States takes a virginity pledge at some point, vowing to wait until they're married before having sex.

The best studies of adolescents who take a «virginity pledge» suggest that these kids have sex just as early as those who don't pledge, but that they are less likely to use birth control when they do have sex.

Teenage pregnancy · Sex education · Virginity pledge · Adolescent sexual behavior · In the United States

Not exact matches

«Virginity pledgers are very different than most US teens — they are obviously more conservative, they have more negative views about sexuality and birth control and so even if they didn't take a pledge these would be teenagers who would be very likely to abstain anyhow,» says Rosenbaum.