BOSTON — I hate to bring this up right now when the ink is barely dry on
your New Year's resolution. But if history is any guide, you are likely to fall
off the assorted wagons to which you are currently lashed.
I don't say this to disparage your willpower. Hang onto that celery stick
for dear life. And even if you stop doing those stomach crunches and start
sneaking out for a smoke, at least you can comfort yourself with fond memories
of your moment of resolution.
Compare that to the statistic in the newest research about teens who pledge
abstinence. The majority not only break the pledge, they forget they ever made
it.
This study of teens and pledges comes from Johns Hopkins researcher Janet
Rosenbaum, who took a rigorous look at nearly 1,000 students. She Compared
teens who took a pledge of abstinence with teens of similar backgrounds and
beliefs who didn't. She found absolutely no difference in their sexual
behavior, or the age at which they began having sex, or the number of their
partners.
In fact, the only difference was that the group that promised to remain
abstinent was significantly less likely to use birth control, especially
condoms, when they did have sex. The lesson many students seemed to retain from
their abstinence-only program was a negative and inaccurate view of
contraception.
This is not just a primer on the capacity for teenage denial or the inner workings of adolescent neurobiology. What makes this study important is simply this: "virginity pledges" are one of the ways that the government measures whether abstinence-only education is "working." They count the pledges as proof that teens will abstain. It turns out that this is like counting New Year's resolutions as proof that you lost 10 pounds.
Created by Jenna Slack, an undergraduate student of Secondary Education at North Central College.
View Jenna's other education resources
Last updated: 17 February 2009