virginity pledges do more harm than good

[dimpy.handa]

Having sex as a teenager is also scientifically established to be strongly associated with a variety of psychosocial risks. Such adolescents are significantly more likely than virginal teens to engage in risky behaviour. They are 10 times more likely to have use marijuana and 6 times more likely to have attempted suicide. In other words, the problem is not just STDs or unwanted pregnancies. Teen sex itself is a problem, and to the extent that virginity pledges help youths to abstain from teenage sex they are useful. While it is true that female pledgers who begin having sex experience lower self-esteem, this is also true of female non-pledgers when they begin having sex. It is not the result of having broken the pledge, but rather of the experience of having sex too young.

 

[swatiraohnlu]

These teens who'd promised to avoid premarital sex actually ended up exposing themselves to greater risk of pre-marital pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, despite the hopes of those who support federally funded virginity pledge programs.