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Family Research Abstract of the Week: Abstinence Makes the Mind Work Harder
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Many health educators dismiss the idea of teaching sexual abstinence until marriage, thinking it leaves teens ignorant and ill prepared to make transitions to adulthood. However, a new study by the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., finds just the reverse, documenting that teens who heed the abstinence message-relative to those who do not-are less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to attend and graduate from college.

Looking at the rich data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which interviewed a cohort of 14,000 teens
in 1994, 1995, and 2001, researchers Robert Rector and Kirk Johnson found consistent and robust correlations between teen virginity and several positive academic outcomes. Most important, by narrowing the comparison among teens to those with identical social background characteristics, the researchers were able to isolate the effects of teen virginity from the effects of socioeconomic differences that might also account for such outcomes.

Controlling for parental education, race, gender, family structure, religiosity, and family income, their multivariate logistic regressions confirmed teen abstinence as a "significant and independent predictor of academic success," being associated with a 40 percent lower rate of highschool expulsion, a 50 percent lower rate of dropping out of high school, a 70 percent increase in the probability of attending or graduating from college, and a 66 percent increase in college graduation. These statistically significant correlations held firm even when girls who had given birth before 18 were excluded from the analysis, evidence that the academic differences were not due to the disruptive effects of non-marital pregnancy and childbearing. The associations also held in tests that controlled for the educational expectations of teens that were 16 and under at the time of the 1994 Add Health follow-up, evidence that abstinence contributes to higher academic outcomes independent of a teen's desire or expectations to attend college. While not claiming that teen virginity directly causes academic achievement, the researchers nonetheless theorize that virginity both reinforces and reflects the academic capacities and personality traits that contribute to academic success. "Teens who abstain [from sexual relations] will be subject to less emotional turmoil and fewer psychological distractions; this will enable them to better focus on schoolwork." Furthermore, virgin teens "are likely to have greater future orientation, greater impulse control, greater perseverance, greater resistance to peer pressure, and more respect for parental and social values."

(Source: Robert Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, "Teenage Sexual Abstinence and
Academic Achievement, The Heritage Foundation," August 2005.)

"Thank you, safe sex."

"Here are some of the results of 25 years of addressing this problem with the "safe sex" ideology:

Ten percent of all 15 to 19 year-old females become pregnant each year.

More than 80 percent of pregnant girls under age 17 who give birth and keep their babies end up on welfare, costing society a staggering $21 billion a year.

Three million new cases of STDs among teens are reported each year.

Up to 29 percent of sexually active adolescent girls have been found to be infected with chlamydia.

A study of sexually active college women showed that 43 percent acquired HIV infection within a 3-year period.

 

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Statistics

[These statistics come from the national study reported in "The State of America's Children Yearbook, 1994" and for a 1995 State Department of Education survey of 2,314 high school students from 58 randomly selected high schools.]

• Every 10 seconds a teenager becomes sexually active for the first time.
• 55% of students surveyed had sexual intercourse with another student during their high school years.
• 11% had sexual intercourse with another student before the age of 13.
• 21% had 4 or more sexual partners in their high school years.
• 46% of those surveyed used no form of contraception.
• Every 26 seconds a baby is born to an unmarried mother.
• Every 30 seconds a baby is born into poverty.
• In a 24 hour time period, 2795 teenage girls will become pregnant.
• Every day, 7742 teens become sexually active.
• One out of three 13 to 15 year olds have had sex.
• 73% of all teens say that the reason they engage in sex is due to the social pressure.
• 1,106 teenagers have abortions every day.
• By the age of 13, 43% of "churched" teens had experienced sexual intercourse and 65% of the youth had engaged in fondling breasts and/or sexual intercourse.
• 50% of all rapes involved alcohol.
• More than 1 million teens are sexually assaulted each year.
• Attempted date rape on college campus is 1 in 4.
• 1 in 4 women will be raped in their lifetime, less than 10% will report it, and less than %5 of the rapists will go to jail.

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The State of America's Children Yearbook 2001

25 Key Facts About American Children
1 in 2 will live in a single parent family at some point in childhood.
1 in 3 is born to unmarried parents.
1 in 3 will be poor at some point in their childhood.
1 in 3 is behind a year or more in school.
1 in 4 lives with only one parent.
2 in 5 never complete a single year of college.
1 in 5 was born poor.
1 in 5 is born to a mother who did not graduate from high school.
1 in 5 has a foreign-born mother.
3 in 5 preschoolers have their mother in the labor force.
1 in 6 is poor now.
1 in 6 is born to a mother who did not receive prenatal care in the first three months of pregnancy.
1 in 7 has no health insurance.
1 in 7 has a worker in their family but still is poor.
1 in 8 lives in a family receiving food stamps.
1 in 8 never graduates from high school.
1 in 8 is born to a teenage mother.
1 in 12 has a disability.
1 in 13 was born with low birthweight.
1 in 15 lives at less than half the poverty level.
1 in 24 lives with neither parent.
1 in 26 is born to a mother who received late or no prenatal care.
1 in 60 sees their parents divorce in any year.
1 in 139 will die before their first birthday.
1 in 1,056 will be killed by guns before age 20.

©2001 Children's Defense Fund.
Source: The State of America's Children Yearbook 2001.