SEXUALITY The mixed effects of abstinence pledges
Some teens consider themselves still abstinent if they have oral sex.
By MARY MEEHAN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Abstinence pledges -- signed commitments that teenagers will not have sex before marriage -- might be less than effective, a recent study says.
And more than half the teens in a recent study said a person should still be considered abstinent after engaging in oral sex.
Those are the results of a Northern Kentucky University survey of nearly 600 teens.
According to the survey, 61 percent of those who had taken abstinence pledges had broken them within a year. Of the 39 percent who said they had not broken their pledges, more than half disclosed they'd engaged in oral sex.
"Some people feel like they can maintain their pledge and still have oral sex, and that oral sex doesn't count," NKU researcher and psychologist Angela Lipsitz said.
"It might help the pregnancy rate, but it's not going to keep people from getting diseases," she said. "The problem is, you can get a lot of STDs [sexually transmitted diseases] from oral sex."
The news comes amid press reports during the last few years that oral sex appears to be practiced by more teens today than in years past.
Herpes transmission
Although most evidence is anecdotal, a University of Wisconsin study showed 78 percent of new genital herpes cases could be linked to the herpes simplex virus type 1, which causes cold sores. The study showed that type of infection was more common in those ages 16-21 than in older patients. Typically, the Type 1 virus accounts for about 30 percent of new genital herpes cases.
Dr. W. David Hager, a Lexington physician and abstinence advocate, said he thinks the increase in oral sex can be traced to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and President Bill Clinton's contention that oral sex wasn't really sex. The exhaustive press coverage helped spread that idea to teens, he said.
As abstinence supporters have noticed the trend, he said, they are putting more emphasis on oral sex as unacceptable.
But Lipsitz said the NKU study showed other areas for concern.
She said pledge-takers are less likely to use protection when they first have sex, getting swept up in the moment without being adequately prepared.
In a bit of good news, the study showed that pledge-breakers had sex a year later -- at age 17.6 -- than non-pledging students.
The study, Lipsitz said, "does raise some caution flags that we need to look at honestly and see if these pledges are doing what people hope they are doing."
Influencing choices
Pam Woodrum said her experience as a health educator at the University of Kentucky reflects the survey results.
"I know there are a lot of students who are abstaining," she said. But "I kind of see both ends of the spectrum."
Woodrum, a health educator for 30 years, encourages abstinence in her talks to student groups, but she said that by the time students get to college, they've already chosen a path.
"The students that I see a lot of time are the ones that aren't doing anything anyway," she said.
Woodrum urges parents to talk to their kids early and often about postponing sex and keep repeating the message even as they go off to college. One key point, she said, should be that "just because they see it in the movies or television and read about it on the Internet, that doesn't mean that everybody is doing it."
Parents also can help by not simply telling their children to say no but to get them thinking about the consequences of premature sexual behavior, Dr. Hager said.
"It's not a matter of being a watchdog and constantly checking," he said.
Reinforcement
Abstinence pledges can work, he said, but the message has to be reinforced.
"We know that abstinence is not something that you teach one time and then dismiss and expect young people to continue necessarily to abstain," he said.
"The key thing is not only the structure and the commitment but really has a lot to do with peers," he said. Pledge-takers need to have "a peer group where the individuals in that peer group are encouraging abstinence."
"The most significant thing, the only guaranteed way to prevent nonmarital pregnancy and STD infections ... is abstinence."