Fudge the pledge!

This is a bit of a slap in the face, eh?

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 sexually 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.

Consequently, rather than rely on self-reports, "studies of virginity pledges must focus on outcomes where we know we can get good information, such as medical STD tests," she added.

Previous research shows that survey respondents tend to answer questions about sexual activity according to their current beliefs, particularly if their current attitudes conflict with their past behaviors. Survey respondents may also underreport or overreport their health risk behavior.

I've always thought that these pledges were a bit of a farce.
Sex and teenagers.
Good grief.
Those that proclaim they will pledge to it do so under their peers' eyes, their parents, the community. You can't tell me there isn't any duress of any sort there.

Only when you feel you're ready, yes? Always with both eyes open. And accept your consequences. I get really stroppy when I read of 13 year olds carrying babies just because they were "curious".


I blame the parents in those cases though.