Virginity pledgers' STDs not reduced

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Virginity pledgers' STDs rate not reduced

A researcher says 'Just say no' doesn't work in the long term, after finding that the rates of sex diseases for teens who pledge virginity until marriage and for those who don't are similar.

BY JASON STRAZIUSO

Associated Press


PHILADELPHIA - Teenagers who make a one-time pledge to remain virgins until marriage catch sexually transmitted diseases about as often as those who don't pledge abstinence, according to a study of the sex lives of 12,000 adolescents.

Those who make a public pledge to delay also wind up having fewer sex partners and get married earlier, the research shows. But the two groups' STD rates were statistically similar.

One of the problems, researchers found, is that virginity pledgers are less likely to use condoms.

''It's difficult to simultaneously prepare for sex and say you're not going to have sex,'' said Peter Bearman, chairman of Columbia University's sociology department, who coauthored the study with Hannah Bruckner of Yale University.

'The message is really simple: `Just say no' may work in the short term but doesn't work in the long term,'' Bearman said.

UNDERESTIMATE RISK

The analysis also found that in communities where at least 20 percent of adolescents pledged to remain virgins, the STD rates for everyone combined was 8.9 percent. In communities with fewer than 7 percent pledgers, the STD rate was 5.5 percent.

''It is the combination of hidden sex and unsafe sex that creates a world where people underestimate the risk of STDs,'' Bearman said.

The study first questioned 12- to 18-year-olds and followed up on them six years later as adults. It found that the STD rates for whites who pledged virginity was 2.8 percent compared with 3.5 percent for those who didn't pledge. For blacks, it was 18.1 percent and 20.3 percent, respectively. For Hispanics, it was 6.7 percent and 8.6 percent.

The study also found that 99 percent of nonpledgers and 88 percent of pledgers have sex before marriage.

SEX EDUCATION

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.

But Pat Fagan, who researches family and cultural issues at the Heritage Foundation, cautioned that one-time pledges were different from abstinence-only education, which he said takes years of support and education. He noted that the virginity pledges delayed sex and led to fewer partners.

''It shows the power of the pledges by themselves,'' he said. ``It also shows that alone, a one-time pledge is not enough. Anyone connected with the abstinence movement would never say it's enough.''

Information from the study, presented Tuesday at the National STD Prevention Conference, was taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Virginity pledgers' STDs not reduced