YOUNG PEOPLE ASK/What About Virginity Pledges?

What is a  virginity pledge?

Do virginity pledges work?

 A better approach

What is a virginity pledge?

A virginity pledge is a written or oral promise to maintain sexual abstinence until marriage. 

Virginity pledges became popular in the 1990's  when the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States  launched "True Love Waits"-a program that combined Biblical values with positive peer pressure to encourage young people to say no to sex before marriage.

A similar program, started soon afterward, featured events where attendees who took the pledge were given a silver ring to symbolize (and remind them of) their no-sex-before-marriage commitment.  

Do virginity pledges work?

The answer depends on who you ask.

* According to researchers Christine C.Kim and Robert Rector,  "several studies have found that adolescent virginity pledging was associated with delayed or reduced levels of teen sexual activity."

* According research published by the Guttmacher Institute, studies indicate that "teens who take 'virginity pledges' are just as likely to have sex as those who do not."

Why the conflicting results?

* Some studies compare pledgers with non-pledgers who do not share similar beliefs about sex. 

* Other studies compare pledgers with  with non-pledgers who share  similar beliefs about sex.

What did the latter type of stud reveal?  Dr. Janet Rosenbaum, a specialist in adolescent health issues, says that after five years,  "pledgers and non-pledgers don't differ at all in their sexual behavior." 

Next time: YOUNG PEOPLE ASK/What About Virginity Pledges? -A better approach

From the jw.org publications