Posted on 03/18/2005 1:45:07 PM PST by Crackingham
Teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are more likely to take chances with other kinds of sex that increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, a study of 12,000 adolescents suggests. The report by Yale and Columbia University researchers could help explain their earlier findings that teens who pledged abstinence are just as likely to have STDs as their peers.
The latest study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that teens pledging virginity until marriage are more likely to have oral and anal sex than other teens who have not had intercourse. That behavior, however, "puts you at risk," said Hannah Brueckner, assistant professor of sociology at Yale and one of the study's authors.
Among virgins, boys who have pledged abstinence were four times more likely to have had anal sex, according to the study. Overall, pledgers were six times more likely to have oral sex than teens who have remained abstinent but not as part of a pledge. The pledging group was also less likely to use condoms during their first sexual experience or get tested for STDs, the researchers found.
Data for the study was taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. An in-school questionnaire was given to a nationally representative sample of students in grades 7-12 and followed up with a series of in-home interviews roughly one, two, and six years later. It was funded in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Leslee Unruh, president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, S.D., called the study "bogus," disputing that those involved had pledged true "abstinence."
"Kids who pledge abstinence are taught that any word that has 'sex' in it is considered a sexual activity," Unruh said. "Therefore oral sex is sex, and they are staying away."
The obvious contradiction in the title is mind blowing...
Oh, I forgot, Oral Sex is not sex...according to the LIBs God - Clinton...
Well it just shows to go ya that GOD musta been wrong all along, acording to these perverts...
(what a bunch of tripe this is...)
How can a virgin have anal sex and remain a virgin?..
There was no way I could have remained a virgin as a teenager. I was way too horny all the time.
"other kinds of sex that increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases"
And regular old sex doesn't increase the risk of STD's?
This is just incredibly insane and so agenda driven it's not even funny.
Define lust.
I've known several people who claimed they were virgins yet had all sorts of intercourse except vaginal penetration. They were quite creative i should add.
Let me guess.
Publish nonsensical findings in order to create controversy.
I bet there's a few con-men at Yale and Columbia University trolling for taxpayer grants.
If you're teaching abstinence without chastity, what the heck are you teaching?
Abstinence leads to skydiving. For males anyway.
You shouldn't use words you can't define. the point I would like to make is that a passing sexual thought about a woman is not lust. Dwelling on I and thinking about how you might actually set up a situation in which to make it happen is lust.
Depends on the definition of "is."
"other kinds of sex that increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases"
And regular old sex doesn't increase the risk of STD's?
Regular sex is risky, but anal sex is VERY risky as it is more likely to involve blood (YUCK!).
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