posted on March 9, 2004 10:13:58 AM new
Study Examines STD Rates of Teen Virgins
Teenagers Who Pledge Abstinence Have Same Rate of STDs As Those Who Don't, Study Finds
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA March 9 — Teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage have the same rates of sexually transmitted diseases as those who don't pledge abstinence, according to a study that examined the sex lives of 12,000 adolescents.
Those who make a public pledge to abstain until marriage delay sex, have fewer sex partners and get married earlier, according to the data, gathered from adolescents ages 12 to 18 who were questioned again six years later. But the two groups' STD rates were statistically similar.
The problem, the study found, is that those virginity "pledgers" are much 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, the chair of Columbia University's Department of Sociology, who co-authored the study with Hannah Bruckner of Yale.
"The message is really simple: 'Just say no' may work in the short term but doesn't work in the long term."
Data from the study, to be presented Tuesday at the National STD Prevention Conference, was taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. That study was funded in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Once the data from the early findings study have been reviewed by peers, they will be submitted for publication, Bearman said.
Critics of abstinance-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.
The study 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. For Asians, 10.5 percent of virginity pledgers had STDs compared with 5.6 percent of non-pledgers. For Hispanics, it was 6.7 percent and 8.6 percent.
Bearman said that from a statistical point of view the numbers were the same. Overall rates combining all races wouldn't be valid, he said.
"The point is, substantively, that if you knew someone who pledged, and you knew someone who didn't pledge, you had no basis for thinking that one of them would have an STD over the other," he said.
The study also found that in communities where at least 20 percent of adolescents pledged the STD rates for everyone combined was 8.9 percent. In communities with less 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's other findings:
59 percent of males who did not pledge abstinence used a condom during sex; only 40 percent of male pledgers used a condom.
28 percent of female non-pledgers were tested for STDs in the previous year, compared to 14 percent of female pledgers.
99 percent of non-pledgers and 88 percent of pledgers have sex before marriage.
posted on March 9, 2004 01:01:50 PM new
Now gravid, everyone knows that abstinence is a viable way to go for mammals who are drenched in reproductive hormones demanding procreative action. And becides, ignorance is always the perfered way to go if knowledge contradicts your religious tenets.
Abstinence should only be taught at senior citizen centers. And viagra should be outlawed.
posted on March 10, 2004 09:12:25 AM new
I saw this on television last evening and the data doesn't surprise me.
President Bush's "Abstinence Only" sex-ed programs based on religious beliefs are a step back into the dark ages. STDs and teen pregnancy will continue to increase at an even more rapid rate.
posted on March 10, 2004 09:38:57 AM new
Talk to some modern teens about what constitutes "sex", many of them are "abstinent" and having a big old time....probably learnt it from that Klinton feller......
___________________________________
posted on March 10, 2004 12:26:29 PM new
The concept of oral sex not being sex started long before Clinton. Don't forget to give props to all those parents who decided they wanted the responsibility of teaching their kids about sex not the schools and put all the emphasis on penetration and forgot about oral intercourse since it does not lead to pregancy. Most parents idea of "the talk" seems to be about impregnation not about sexuality.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on March 10, 2004 03:42:40 PM new
Kissing is considered very naughty in Indonesia if you do it in public.
Associated Press
Published on: 03/10/04
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Kissing in public and erotic dancing could become a crime punishable by five years in jail as part of a proposed clampdown on morality in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, according to media reports on Tuesday.
In a related development, authorities on the country's Batam island said they planned to raid houses looking for cohabiting couples and make them get married, the reports said.
posted on March 10, 2004 03:56:35 PM new
Reamond many moons ago - in fact back at the end of the Reagan and early Bush Vol 1 administrations I worked with touring entertainers and I can tell you that even that far back they were going with the Oral sex is not sex line. I knew som many guys that claimed they never cheated on their wives because they only endulged in oral sex it became a running joke.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by Fenix03 on Mar 10, 2004 03:59 PM ]
posted on March 10, 2004 06:49:39 PM new
a niteclub singer offered anal sex to her patron saying she wanted to remain a virgin until she gets married.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
