Friday, July 16, 2010

Virginity Pledges and Other Promises

There is evidence that the virginity pledge does delay adolescent intercourse by a year or two. Although they represent a minority of the true-blue pledgers – around twenty to twenty five percent, pledgers are much more likely to remain virgins into their twenties compared to those who didn’t pledge at all. Bruckner and Bearman, 2005, "After the Promise: The STD Consequences of Adolescent Virignity Pledges" 

But as you can see in this survey of one introductory sociology course in 2009, when most of these kids were around 18 or 19 years old, those who have pledged virginity until marriage are no different in their sexual profiles than those who did not pledge. True, those who took a virginity pledge are more likely not to have had any kind of sexual contact.  But the percentages are tiny.  Virginity pledgers are just as likely to have had intercourse as those who made no pledge.  Indeed, they are more likely to have given their boy friends a blow job or their girls friends a muff job than those who didn’t pledge.




Have you ever taken a virginity pledge?
Total


Yes
No

         
 Talking intimately
Count
60
393
453


%
92.3%
93.6%


 Holding hands
Count
62
402
464


%
95.4%
95.7%


 Kissing
Count
61
395
456


%
93.8%
94.0%


Hugging
Count
60
411
471


%
92.3%
97.9%


Manual stimulation of my genitals
Count
53
342
395


%
81.5%
81.4%


Manual stimulation of my partner
Count
52
327
379


%
80.0%
77.9%


Received oral sex
Count
49
301
350


%
75.4%
71.7%


Given oral sex
Count
48
274
322


%
73.8%
65.2%


Vaginal sex
Count
42
275
317


%
64.6%
65.5%


Received anal intercourse
Count
5
47
52


%
7.7%
11.2%


Given anal intercourse
Count
6
30
36


%
9.2%
7.1%


None of the above
Count
2
7
9


%
3.1%
1.7%

    Total
Count
65
420
485

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