Do Virginity Pledges Work?

[nina2]

Do Virginity Pledges Work?

By Alex Altman


"The debate over sex education has long been a heated one.

A new study released Dec. 29 found that a popular method of promoting abstinence — pledging to remain a virgin — doesn't appear to be the answer.

To reach this conclusion, Janet Rosenbaum, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, analyzed information gathered from nearly 1,000 teenagers, of which approximately 30% took a virginity pledge.

Parsing the data, Rosenbaum found that the teenagers who took chastity vows were just as likely to have premarital sex as their peers—and significantly less likely to use protection.

TIME talked to Rosenbaum, whose study appears in the January 2009 issue of Pediatrics, about her findings."


Full interview article:

[a href="www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1868990,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-full-nation-related "]www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1868990,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-full-nation-related [/a]

Thing of the past? Myth? Utopia? Just give up and give it up?

Is there really going to ever be a solution that "works"?

[kitty]

Hey Nina,

I think virginity pledges do work... Just as I don't buy into all of the stats. that are put out there... For example... I found that when I was in my teens and early 20's and people wanted to say that young black girls were faster than a speeding train... That medical professionals nor those taking polls wanted to add me and my friends to their stats... I was a virgin, grew up in a 2 parent home and was an "inner-city" kid.

But that just wasn't the image that they wanted to promote so those doing that kind of study stayed away from schools and areas that were contradict what they wanted to claim. Later on it was showed that when they came out with stats that claimed that young black girls were losing their viriginity at least 2-3 years before everyone else... They were polling only those who had become pregnant, or those who had gone to a public health dept. due to an STD or seeking an abortion...

Then turning around that claiming that group was a true representation of black girls in the cities across the U.S.

The solution to the problem of teen sex is simple...

1. Stop pushing sex on them with shows like Gossip girl and the current 90201! Those shows start with the premise that no kid is a virgin...

2. Talk to the BOYS... Males are usually the ones who push the sex issue. Girls quite naturally know they have more to lose so are usually the one pressing the issue.

3. Have more Godly men talk to boys and girls about being refraing from sex. Most of the time it is a woman...9 out of 10 times if we see a man doing it..it is usually a Pastor. There need to be more everyday guys a part of the movement and teaching...

4. Stop pushing sexy clothes at teenage girls... Thongs?! Really people how sad that we as adults have allowed this!


Kitty