Virginity Pledgers Often Dishonest About Their Past
Yet more evidence that the abstinence-until-marriage crowd is deluding itself into believing that virginity pledges have any real value. (Above, virginity pledgers and their fathers at a so-called purity ball.)Yet more evidence that the abstinence-until-marriage crowd is deluding itself into believing that virginity pledges have any real value.
Wait, before you go…Reuters:
Teenagers who take pledges to remain virgins until marriage are likely to deny having taken the pledge if they later become sexually active. Conversely, those who were sexual active before taking the pledge frequency deny their sexual history, according to new study findings.
These findings imply that virginity pledgers often provide unreliable data, making assessment of abstinence-based sex education programs unreliable. In addition, these teens may also underestimate their risk of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases.
“Teenagers do not report their past sexual activity accurately, with virginity pledgers giving more inaccurate reports of their past sexual activity,” study author Janet Rosenbaum, of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told Reuters Health.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists the Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education, a pro-abstinence program aimed at middle and high schoolers, as one of almost three dozen "evidenced-based" sex education programs that qualify as effective in preventing teenage pregnancy.
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