A new RAND Corporation study released Tuesday suggests that making a virginity pledge may help some teens and young adults delay the start of sexual activity.
The nonprofit research institute found that only 34 percent of those who made the pledge had sexual intercourse in the following three years, compared with 42 percent of similar teens who did not make virginity pledges.
“Making a pledge to remain a virgin until married may provide extra motivation to adolescents who want to delay becoming sexually active,” said Steven Martino, the study’s lead author and a psychologist at RAND.
“The act of pledging may create some social pressure or social support that helps them to follow through with their clearly stated public intention.”
Although previous research had examined the impact of virginity pledges, the RAND study was unique in that it accounted for pre-existing differences between pledgers and non-pledgers on factors such as parenting, religiosity and friendship characteristics. The researchers were then able to compare the pledges’ impact among those with shared characteristics.
The study queried 1,461 adolescent virgins aged 12 to 17 in 2001, and then again one and three years later. About one-quarter of the group had made a virginity pledge during the initial survey.
“These findings do not suggest that virginity pledges should be a substitute for comprehensive sexual education programs, or that they will work for all kinds of kids,” Martino said.
“But virginity pledges may be appropriate as one component of an overall sex education effort.”
The study further found that, contrary to previous speculation, those who pledged to remain virgins were no more likely to engage in non-intercourse behaviors, such as oral sex, than those who did not make the pledge.
“Waiting until you are older to have sex is good for teens from a health standpoint,” Martino said.
“There are lots of reasons for more kids to wait until they are older.”
The researchers said people who delay sex until they are older are less likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases or have unintended pregnancies. They are also better emotionally equipped for the experience.
However, Martino added that persuading teens to make virginity pledges is not likely to delay the initiation of sexual intercourse.
“Virginity pledges must be made freely for them to work,” Martino said.
“If young people are coerced or are unduly influenced by peer pressure, virginity pledges are not likely to have a positive effect.”
Previous research suggested that teens who make virginity pledges were less likely to use condoms during their first act of sexual intercourse. But the RAND study appears to refute this, finding instead that adolescents who made virginity pledges but eventually had sex did not report lower condom use. However, the study only asked participants about condom use in the previous year, not specifically whether or not they had used a condom the first time they had sex.
There has been conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of virginity pledges, which initiated in the United States in 1993 by the Southern Baptist Convention. The pledges are now encouraged by hundreds of churches, schools and colleges around the world. Estimates indicate that among adolescents in the United States, 23 percent of females and 16 percent of males have made a virginity pledge.
“Making a pledge to remain a virgin until married may provide extra motivation to adolescents who want to delay becoming sexually active,” Martino told Reuters.
“The act of pledging may create some social pressure or social support that helps them to follow through with their clearly stated public intention.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 48 percent of high school students in the U.S. say they have had sex.
The study was published online by the Journal of Adolescent Health.
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