yet another study based on data from the national longitudinal study of adolescent health has found that teen abstinence pledges don’t work. those who pledge abstinence have just as much sex as their openly frisky counterparts, and are less safe about it, to boot. it’s an interesting addition to the growing body of literature that indicates abstinence-only sex ed doesn’t work, because the researchers matched the pledge sample to the non-pledge sample on a number of pre-pledge factors thought to influence sexual behavior, such a geographic region, ethnicity, and a host of indicators related to teenagers’ relationship with their parents.¹

one of the more interesting findings, in my mind, is the following:

Few virginity pledgers continue to identify with their pledges 5 years after pledging, with >80% claiming to have never pledged, consistent with an earlier finding that half of pledgers disaffiliated within 1 year. This high rate of disaffiliation may imply that nearly all virginity pledgers view pledges as nonbinding.

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¹ does BMI really influence sexual behavior?