Duh.

The January 2009 issue of Pediatrics. Janet Rosembaum, Ph.D. in a study of over 1000 adolescents studied the effects of abstinence-only education.

Dr. Rosenbaum followed a group of students who were over the age of 15 in 1996 and who had made the pledge to be abstinent. She compared them with a group that did not make that pledge, in a longitudnal, matched-subject design.

Subjects were matched on a variety of factors, including religiosity (theirs and their parents), friend's attitudes, and available information.

Results:

• 5 years after the pledge, 82% of the pledgers denied ever making the pledge.
• There was no difference between the groups in the rate of premarital sex between pledgers and non-pledgers.
• There was no difference between the groups in lifetime number of sexual partners, types of sexual activity, or number of STDs.
• There was a statistically signficant difference found in use of birth control: fewer pledgers used birth control and condoms in the past year.

Among the author's conclusions: "Clinicians should provide brith control information to all adolescents, especially virginity pledgers."

This should make you feel better if all the self-righteous virgins in high school ever called you a slut.

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