Virginity Pledges May Help Postpone Intercourse Among Youth (RAND Corp. Study)

RAND Corporation / The Journal of Adolescent Health ^ | June 10, 2008 | Steven Martino

[Stoat]

RAND RAND Health Virginity Pledges Among the Willing Delays in First Intercourse and Consistency of Condom Use

Virginity Pledges Among the Willing: Delays in First Intercourse and Consistency of Condom Use

Martino SC, Elliott MN, Collins RL, Kanouse DE, Berry SH. Journal of Adolescent Health, [ePub, June 5, 2008].

Read article (may require searching, registration or payment on Journal of Adolescent Health website)

 

Purpose
We examine longitudinal relationships between virginity pledging in adolescence and both sexual initiation and condom use. Prior studies have had mixed results and may not adequately control for prepledge differences between pledgers and nonpledgers.

Methods
Data came from a national sample of 12- to 17-year-olds surveyed in 2001 and reinterviewed 1 and 3 years later. Logistic regression models estimated the association between making a pledge and each outcome. Selection bias was reduced through propensity-score weighting and a rich set of demographic and psychosocial covariates.

Results
Pledgers and nonpledgers differed substantially in preexisting characteristics. However, after propensity weighting and statistical controls, pledging was still associated with delayed intercourse. We estimate that in the absence of pledging 42.4% of virgins with characteristics indicating an inclination to pledge initiate intercourse within 3 years; in the presence of the pledge, 33.6% of such youth initiate intercourse. Among those who had sex during this period, pledging was unassociated with condom use. Among those who did not have sex during this period, pledging was unassociated with engagement in noncoital sexual behavior.

Conclusions
Making a virginity pledge appears to be an effective means of delaying sexual intercourse initiation among those inclined to pledge without influencing other sexual behavior; pledging does not appear to affect sexual safety among pledgers who fail to remain abstinent

[Stoat]

Unfortunately, the full article is only available via subscription or online purchase and so is not reproduced here.

Without additional data it's difficult to be sure from the sparse information presented, but I'm thinking that the study's inclusion of people who are not from supportive / religious backgrounds 'may' have reduced the final success figures to a point below what they might have been if the study had included only people from supportive and religious families...in other words, I'm thinking that the success rates may have been significantly higher if only people from a preexisting supportive and religious background had been studied.

Despite the sparse and incomplete nature of the available information, I thought that this might still be of interest to FReepers in that it reinforces what many of us have felt for some time.

[CindyDawg]

Ohhhhhhh ....liberals are not going to like this at all. Seventeen is kind of old for this survey though since some girls get married between 18-20. I wonder if those were removed from the data.

[Stoat]

FYI

[Perdogg]

I thought the RAND coproration just did studies on bombs.

[MooseMan]

The media responds to the survey.

[Stoat]

liberals are not going to like this at all.

Indeed, that's probably why the study, which is nearly a month old, was not trumpeted in the 'press' as they will do for studies which seem to bolster liberal positions on issues.

I only found out about this because I receive regular email alerts from RAND....I hadn't seen this in the 'press' at all.

[Faith]

There was a time in this nation (and not so long ago) that postponing sex until marriage was an expectation and a reality for many, if not most. Only in recent years with the advent of the “pill”, and liberals controlling entertainment and other media, has the expectation reversed itself. A strong effort has been made by the Left to convince teens and young adults that they are not normal unless they are having unmarried sex. Throw in Planned Parenthood, the sex education fiascos in our schools, liberal parents who want their kids to be cool, etc. and you have the mess that we’re in today. This article has some news worthy of celebrating.

[Stoat]

I thought the RAND coproration just did studies on bombs.

They actually have a pretty wide range of research interests....this page directs you to their "core research areas"

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[airforceF4]

OK, but this is still based on self-reported data with a few bells & whistles from the statistical end. Regression analysis has an error rate. There is no alternative verification for the self reports the subjects made.
Cynic & statistician.

[wagglebee]

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[MrB]

It’s the devaluing of the family as an institution.

One of the Communist Goals for America.

[MrB]

What was the story the other day?
Christian men make better husbands and fathers? DUH...

They’ll probably do another study and conclude that girls with strong Christian fathers who lead their household are more likely to “postpone intercourse”.

Or, probably not, as this is not something they want widely known.

[Stoat]

Thank you very much for pinging your list  :-)

[Stoat]

There was a time in this nation (and not so long ago) that postponing sex until marriage was an expectation and a reality for many, if not most. Only in recent years with the advent of the “pill”, and liberals controlling entertainment and other media, has the expectation reversed itself. A strong effort has been made by the Left to convince teens and young adults that they are not normal unless they are having unmarried sex. Throw in Planned Parenthood, the sex education fiascos in our schools, liberal parents who want their kids to be cool, etc. and you have the mess that we’re in today.

Agreed on all counts.

 This article has some news worthy of celebrating.

I am delighted that you've found it to be worthwhile  :-)

[Stoat]

The media responds to the survey.
 

Yes, and it naturally raises the question of how many other reputable scientific studies from acclaimed and highly-respected sources they have also 'swept under the rug' merely because they didn't like the conclusions because the results didn't support the Leftist agenda.

[dan1123]

HA! If I can make a bullet list of findings:

• Virginity pledges reduced intercourse in teens by 12%
• Non-pledgers didn't use condoms any more than pledgers who broke their pledges
• Both pledgers and non-pledgers who did not have sex practiced the same amount of sexual activities

I would like to comment as a person who was a teen in the 90s and heard about the virginity pledges. There was almost zero emphasis on pre-sex activities. Usually sex was dire, but everything leading up to that was not so bad. I will advise my son when he's old enough (he's 2 now) to not even talk to a girlfriend about sexual topics. The mind is breached first and the body follows.

[CindyDawg]

If we get back to not letting them date or be unsupervised with boys until they are 16 then the numbers should go even higher. Kind of a parent pledge too. Today..what is there to look forward to at 16...a boyfriend...got one already...dating...been doing that since I was 12...getting married and having children...already got a couple and didn’t even need a husband.

[MrB]

Ever heard the phrase “dating is practice for divorce”?

[CindyDawg]

No :’)