PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.S. adolescents who pledge not to have sex until they are married have about the same rate of sexually transmitted diseases as other teenagers and they often fail to keep their pledge, according to a study.

The study on Tuesday of a nationally representative sample of about 15,000 youths aged 12 to 18 found that 88 percent of teenagers who pledged to remain virgins until they are married ended up having sex before marriage.

The study, funded largely by the National Institutes of Health, found that these teenagers were also less likely to use condoms when they did have sex because they had not paid attention to sex education.

Because of their ignorance about sexually transmitted diseases, "pledgers" were also less likely to seek medical help if they contracted one of the diseases, according to the study unveiled at a Philadelphia conference on sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs.

Dr. Peter Bearman of Columbia University in New York, who headed the study, said the pledge movement failed to recognise the realities of adolescent sexuality. "Ideological programs designed to make serious interventions in public health programs tend not to work," he said.

Adolescents who pledged abstinence were much less likely than others to use contraceptives the first time they had sex. Consequently, their risk of getting STDs and becoming pregnant was as high as non-pledgers, the study found.

Only 40 percent of male pledgers had used a condom in the past year compared with 59 percent of those who did not promise to avoid sex. Among females, the gap was 47 percent to 55 percent.

The study found that pledging did succeed in delaying sex, reducing the number of partners and led to earlier marriages but it did not reduce the rate of sexually transmitted diseases.

"These movements that are ignorant of social science research defeat the purpose they set out to solve," Bearman said.

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FussyPucker

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Hmmm, well it worked for me - i haven't had sex yet and I'm not pregnant.....



:>

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Hang on, if the rate of condom use was lower among the pledged....shouldn't the pregnancy/STD rate have been HIGHER among them. The study says it was AS high.

Hmmm, I suppose if they were having less sex, but more of the sex they were having was unprotected...then the rates might be even. That's possible. So it worked with some, but when it didn't...it really went wrong.

Here's an odd question. I know (from aonther thread current at the moment) that a lot of us did wait until we were out of adolescence (well....at least out of our teenage years) before having sex. Why did we? I knew somehow that I wasn't ready yet...but I'm not sure how I knew. And I don't know how to pass than insite on to the next generation. Absolute pledges obviously aren't the answer.

True GingerV,
Absolute pledges and inflexible ideology rarely work. Some people will wait until marriage, and that is wonderful if that is their choice. If teens feel pressured to make a pledge it will more often fail!

I think that it is a much better plan to talk to kids about their feelings and futures in an honest manner. Let them know that it is a choice they have to make based on their feelings. If you are able to be that honest, they will likely hear what you have to say about the prevention of pregnancy/STD's. BTW~ this isn't just talk, this is the way I am raising my kids!

For myself, I'm old enough that groups encouraging teens not to have sex before marriage weren't around. Having gone through my teen years in the 80's in a big city, sex before marriage was very acceptable. Unfortunately, I didn't have a mother who I could talk to, so I had to make the choices myself. Yes, I did have sex before I left my teen years and yes I did (and still do) feel that I was ready. And yes I did use both the pill and a condom.

Well there's my 2 cents...

Soapbox anyone??

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Oh, I didn't mean to imply that you HAD to wait until you were out of your teens....just that they should wait till they're ready. And that that often isn't as young as some start.

Basically, I think you're right. Gotta be able to talk. It's something I hope I can do when I have kids, it wasn't something my parents were terribly good at. I don't suppose you're giving tutorials on the subject, sounds like you're doing a bang up job .