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Christianity Today, January (Web-only), 2009 |

Study: Abstinence Pledges Aren't Enough

New research says the mere act of taking a public vow won't keep teens from sex.

Tobin Grant | posted 1/07/2009 10:21AM

A new study on "virginity pledges" suggests that they are ineffective and perhaps dangerous. Should we rethink how we approach teenagers about sex?

This month's issue of Pediatrics includes a study by ...

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Daniel Van Koughnett

Posted: January 15, 2009 5:29 PM

It seems Mr Leonard (first commenter) believes that any research which disagrees with what he wants the truth to be, is shoddy. I'm sure Mr Leonard believes he is much more of an authority on Pediatrics than the authors of the study. Of course this is the same sort of head-in-the-sand attitude which has been the cause of teenage pregnancy throughout history. The simple fact of the matter is that, no matter how many times, and in how many disguises it's been tried, "abstinence education" doesn't work... period. How long will we chase the same golden calf of abstinence before we realize that it's not working, it's never worked, it will never work, and it's our children who are suffering for our foolishness?

John	Posted: January 14, 2009 1:51 PM

This article should be in the DUH! column! Teenagers who take a "virginity pledge" are not going to take the time to learn about contracption much less go out and get some so when the moment of weakness comes (forbidden fruit anyone?) they will not be prepared and will plow ahead anyway. To a certain extent, sex is like drugs, the more we provide our kids with meaningful activities and goals the less likely they are to have premature sex. But in many ways sex is not like drugs, it's a natural and (in teens) strong primal urge. Making it "forbidden" just makes the urge that much stronger. De-mystifying sex through education is a much better strategy than abstinence. The "godless, secular" cultures of Western Europe have lower teenage pregnancy rates than we do in party because they educate about sex like any other part of life and in part because they don't make such a huge deal about it. A lesson for our culture...

S.E.Gregg

Posted: January 12, 2009 11:28 AM

I wonder if Christian parents realize that according to scripture (1 Cor. 7:36-38) the Father decides when virgins give away their virginity not the child. So it really does not make a difference whether a child makes an abstinence pledge or not because it is the parents’ responsibility to keep their children virgins until marriage. In my book The Christian Olympics: Going for the Gold Crowns ,I discuss strategies that parents can use to help their children avoid pre -marital sex. S .E. Gregg www.Christianolympics.org

Elizabeth

Posted: January 09, 2009 1:13 AM

I read an article in a secular publication that said they dropped all those who got married from the study. Since a number of Christian young people do marry around 20, 21, 22; dropping them will alter the results. If you have a large number who wait until marriage, but you drop them from the study because they do marry, are your results valid? I agree that for some teens the pledge is just to look good for peers at church or for parents. But is is just one tool, and even if its only effect is to delay sex, it has helped. Also,since those who broke their pledge were older, how many were in a stable relationship with plans for marriage? Although the goal is to wait until marriage, I'm sure most of us would agree that a 20 something couple planning marriage who give in to temptation is not really the same situation as the 17 or 18 year olds who are " experimenting." We should be careful looking at studies, I had a statistics professor who said you can use statistics to prove anything.

a Pastor from Nevada

Posted: January 08, 2009 10:46 PM

Pledges are like resolutions - good intentions that set us up for failure ... the only cure? the 'new heart' - regeneration by the Holy Spirit, "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure" - Phil.2:13 ... the church needs to return to teaching the sheep of the glorious on going work of Christ in the believer - "saved each moment of each day, being saved - a continual action where Jesus save me from me" - NOT resolutions, NOT pledges, NOT continual alters calls - JESUS in all His glorious resurrected POWER !!!

Cynthia

Posted: January 08, 2009 10:33 PM

I read another article about this study. In that article they explained that the researcher compared the "pledge teens" to another group of conservative religious teens, NOT all other teens or any teens that were not conservative and religious. If this is true, then the study does not invalidate the pledge at all. It only shows there is not much difference between pledging teens and conservative religious teens. Extrapolating these results into the general teen population is not valid. I teach public high school and I know numerous teens for whom the pledge has worked. People keep trying to discredit abstinence teaching, but abstinence is the ony thing that is one hundred percent effective against prenancy and STDs. If we can tell kids to "Just say no to drugs" and not teach them about "safe drug use", then we can and must do the same for sex.

Jon	Posted: January 08, 2009 2:48 PM


Legalism fails 100% of the time. Let's practice grace, teaching our children who they are in Christ, that they are created in the image of God, that their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, etc.. Purity is easier from the vantage point of grace than from an externally imposed rule or pledge.

Joe	Posted: January 08, 2009 11:18 AM


I wonder the agenda of the researchers. It is obvious that "pledge" only without education and continual reminder is not effective. We do not need an academic research to tell us. It is common sense. The irony is millions of people believe in and vote for politicians who continuously make pledges, but do little to fulfill them.

Tesfatadelle

Posted: January 08, 2009 8:57 AM

Here we go again!!! Moral and spiritual values are the restrainers not the pledges. How firmly built was the faith of those who pledged? Of course that will not be answered by that study nor will they try to answer it. This is like the Kinsey study to hype wickdness and accentuate relapses of charater and failures of individuals. The standard does not change and the call to the standard is eternal whether society accepts it or not. How unwise of us to succumb to such convoluted assertions?

Bishop Timothy Buss

Posted: January 08, 2009 1:49 AM


I like your response Pastor Ford. I don't see "big bang" abstinence pledges as very effective if our young people are not taught how to keep the pledge. By daily asking God for His help and power to accomplish purity goals can help all people (adults included!!!) to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

Kaisen

Posted: January 08, 2009 1:28 AM


Now giving ones' word for the sake of something vituous is bad, my God what have we become? I fault the writer of this article and Christianity Today for promooting unGodliness for the sake of creating a buzz, a tease for drawing interest to his publication with feet of clay.

Anu, a young person

Posted: January 08, 2009 12:56 AM

(continuing from my previous comment)Since sexual temptation is not merely an issue of will power, we need to educate our young people in the Word of God(the Bible). Tell us what God says about our physical bodies and sexuality and its proper use. Tell the young people about God's purpose for marriage and singleness.We need truth! Remind us that yes we can do the will of God in this area of our lives, relying on His grace, utilizing His word and abiding in Him. Show us that Jesus is our example. Show us how he did it. Also,when we fall. Do not condemn us. Ye that are spiritual,restore the fallen. Remember that God desires that none should perish. Do not shame us and thus drive us away from God.But rather do what Jesus did when he liberated the woman who was to be stoned,the woman in Samaria and Peter. He restored them with redemptive love. Also,become a support for us as we are still young, not rich in wisdom and discernment. We need loving support from you.Consider this and God bless!

Anu, a young person

Posted: January 08, 2009 12:20 AM

Whether or not one makes a public pledge is not the issue. I think the real issue is how we strengthen our young people to walk in the will of God. With regards to premarital sex or adulterous lifestyles, its no surprise that so many people fall into this temptation. Everyday in the media, in secular society we are bombarded with heavily sexual images. Christian principles are mocked and are portrayed as failed or even unpopular and undesirable. Consider the kind of programming targeted at young people, a good example is the show "gossip girl", you don't even have to watch the show, watching the advertisement for the show is enough to influence your mind in a sexual manner. Remember also as Christians our warfare is not carnal but against powers and rulers of spiritual wickedness in the heavenly sphere. So, in dealing with this widespread problem we cannot approach it by using merely natural means(plans or devices rooted in the will power of fallen man). If we do so we will fail.

anonymous

Posted: January 07, 2009 9:27 PM


Children need to have suggestions on how to avoid situations that are likely to cause failure. It may include not dating if you do not plan to marry for 10-12 more years. Dating at age 12 or even 16 if you do not plan to marry till 24, 26, 28 is not wise. Not dating unless you are courting that person for possible marriage will reduce the risks.

EEF	Posted: January 07, 2009 9:03 PM

The effectiveness of any pledge depends on the source of the pledge. A pledge made based on head knowledge is much less effective than one made from the heart. Jim commented that most pledges were from "religious (born again) backgrounds". If indeed the source is from the heart then it will be kept, not by the individuals power, but through the spirit of the one that provided the source of the new birth.

JimWhelchel

Posted: January 07, 2009 7:04 PM

It is interesting that the author points out that those who take abstinence pledges are most likely from religious (often born again) backgrounds. If I understand him correctly, he also says that the methodology of this particular study lets them compare pledgers with others from similar backgrounds, and shows that the pledges actually do not reduce the incidence of premarital sex within that demographic. Yet abstinence drives are a part of the values formation environment that reinforces the value of waiting until marriage to have sex in our churches. As such, they are the contemporary focus of instilling the biblical value of waiting, and are an important part of encouraging young people to do so. Perhaps it does give pause to help us evaluate whether the abstinence drives are the most effective way to do that. But the fact remains: we need to teach our young people the importance of following biblical principles of sexuality, and abstinence is one of those biblical principles.

Stephen Leonard

Posted: January 07, 2009 6:44 PM

Tobin ought to be embarrassed that he so readily bought into shoddy research by those who had an hypothesis they wanted to prove, rather than let the true facts speak for themselves. Unfortunately, CT bought into the propaganda as well. What is your point CT? What do you want the outcome to be from putting this half-baked article out there. I would have thought better of your editors than this. Just today I spoke to a PhD Christian Educational Psychologist who is very well versed in the field and has thoroughly studied all the research and studies and said they produced a result opposite of the conclusion of Tobin and those he quotes. He knows abstinence and faith pledges work and has helped enormously in teens lives. I would have thought CT would want to research this issue more thoroughly to see if God's commands when taken seriously really work or not. Don't support the naysayers who not only sit in the seat of scorners but use shoddy research to put their errant points across.

Pastor Billy Ford

Posted: January 07, 2009 5:34 PM

In the 7th grade I decided to save sex for marriage. I’m not sure how many others made commitments in my church youth group that night because we weren’t asked to stand up, sign pledges, or wear rings. We simply were given the opportunity to respond personally to God in prayer. That night made a big difference in my life, not because I have so much willpower (far from it!), but because I made a covenant with the One who has the power to help us do what is right. Vows and covenants wouldn’t exist in this world if they weren’t effective to some degree. I have trouble trusting this study because I know how easy it is for researchers to end up “proving” what they set out to prove. I do trust Scripture which gives us the example of a young man who was highly esteemed by God: “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself …” (Daniel 1:8). Perhaps pledging in public isn’t the best approach, but young people should still be taught about and encouraged to make moral commitments.

Paul	Posted: January 07, 2009 5:26 PM

The media will do anything to discredit something very good like this. Pledges weren't a part of waiting before I got married, but I did and so did my son, who pledged and even had a clock that counted the time down until he was married. So pledges do work and work on more than pre-marital sex. Those who pledge are also less likely to do drugs and to live more moral and wholesome lives. And even if those who pledge do "yield to temptation," they are doing it later, at the ages of 20 and 21. Why do people have to bash something that give kids a chance to reach their educational and relational goals before they marry and have a family? We should be promoting it instread of bashing it. And think of all the "unplanned children" who have not come into the world and are raised by one parent or even their grandparents, because of pledges. One in four who pledge DO wait until marriage to have sex. Pledging does help to keep kids from having kids.

Howard Pepper

Posted: January 07, 2009 5:22 PM

The article is, among other things, interesting in what it may be revealing about people's pyschology: both parents/leaders and the kids at issue. I'm not surprised that programs mainly delay, but don't seem to continue long-term to change behavior. They didn't speculate this way, but I'd guess maybe the use of birth control is lower because there is less planning ahead. When a "pledger" gives in, I imagine it is relatively more sudden--the sense of determination is high, creating tension, and there may be added pressure from having promised others. If that tension, combined with a strong specific temptation, eventually gets too high, reversal is likely to be rather quick, and not thought-out (i.e., sex without being fully mentally "there" or taking time for precautions). Whatever tools parents and adult leaders choose in helping youth with this, they should base them on all the good psychology and any relevant studies they can find, not just good-sounding ideas.

Keith

Posted: January 07, 2009 5:18 PM


I wonder how the study deals with youth who assume that they are chaste because they practice other than vaginal intercourse. They often engage in this "heavy petting" and oral sex with the consent of their parents who believe this is the way to maintain one's virginity. I found this type behavior to be quite prevalent as I worked in youth ministry.

Matt	Posted: January 07, 2009 5:07 PM


Perhaps Mr. Grant would do well to read the following for additional details and interpretation of an issue that really deserves more attention than a simple "it's not working" headline. See this article from the Wall Street Journal for possibly a more "Christian" and/or conservative view on the recent study: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123120095259855597.html

Rick	Posted: January 07, 2009 4:26 PM

Thank you Dr Yong. I'm no fan of peer pressured spiritual decision that ought to be pledge of a good conscience toward God. But I fear the upshot of this study might be that that it's a bad thing to devote oneself to following Christ in obedience. To vilify the act of making vows to God, or personal commitments of obedience isn't helpful. Should we not make marriage promises because we're not following through on those either! Is it the fault of promise making in general, or is the problem more in in the people making the promises or how they're making them.

Leslie

Posted: January 07, 2009 4:14 PM

My first thought about this article is that if people who gave such pledges are more likely to not use protection its because they know they are "breaking the rules" and might as well break the rest. I liked what one person pointed out - that they are too embarrassed to go to the store. Chances are the decisions are made last minute and they aren't at all prepared. Sometimes I really hate our society and its stupid obsession. The comments to this article are much more enlightening than the article itself. We didn't have a youth group when I was growing up and had no such education. So to read first hand accounts is educational. I agree with the commenter who posted that a lot of the signed cards are probably peer pressure to begin with. I know at a church I attended (as an adult) they had such events... I also know that the kids were all dating each other at different points too.

Scripture has been given to us for a reason so teach it!

Posted: January 07, 2009 3:42 PM

Only the grace of God can keep us chaste. The flesh is weak and will give in to desire and pressure for a variety of reasons. Those selected for the true joy of chastity and virginity by God's grace are fortunate and must be thankful. But most will not comply with the teachings of God: Psalm 15 "Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?...Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the Lord, and keep their promises even when it hurts." 1 Corinthians 7:9: "But if they can’t control themselves, they should go ahead and marry. It’s better to marry than to burn with lust."

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