Just last night Rod brought me a newspaper article to read from that day’s West Australian.  This article was about father and daughter purity balls being held in the US. One of the points it brought out was that in a US Government survey of12 000 teens, most girls who made pledges went on to break them.

 

While the article didn't quote the source of that study it sounded very similar to one I had read about a couple of years ago by Colombia and Yale Universities.

 

From True Love Waits:

Richard Ross's (One of TLW founders)comments come after the release of a study by faculty at Columbia and Yale universities of datacollected from 12,000 teenagers ages 12 to 18 who were questioned again six years later.  Researchers found that 88 percent of those who pledged to be abstinent reported having had sexual intercourse before they married.  Article title: “True Love Waits is 'completely different' from other abstinence programs, leaders say”  Mar 10, 2004 By Erin Curry NASHVILLE

 

A number of other comments by Richard Ross were of great interest to me.

 

True Love Waits has spawned more than 200 similar programs, though the programs vary widely in impact, he said, describing most other programs as offering only three or four class sessions led by a stranger,and at the end students often are asked to sign an abstinence pledge in their notebooks.

Weeks of study and discussion usually precede thesigning of TLW pledge cards

The promises often are made in public ceremonies with teenagers surrounded by family, close friends and a community of faith.

After promising, students receive ongoing support from youth leaders who are part of their world every week, compared to school speakers whom they never see again

Jimmy Hester, another spokesman for True Love Waits" True Love Waits is more effective than most abstinence programs that use the signing of commitment cards because it adds an element they lack -- a commitment toGod,"

“The teaching and challenge to abstinence is not a one-time event,” Hester said. “Just like maintaining other appropriate behaviors, it has to be a continuous thing.”

 

Also in another article Rebecca Collins and a team of researchers at the RAND Corporation:

“found that the most powerful countervailing influence on teen sexual activity is, unsurprisingly, parental involvement. Having parents who monitored their teen's activities, havingparents who were more educated or who were clearly disapproving of teenagers having sexual relations, and teens living with both parents were all strong indicators of delayed sexual activity”. Sex and the TV-watching teen Sep 10, 2004 by Brent Bozell

 

Some time later when I came across a stack of  studies on teenage sexuality I read through some 180 studies with the above comments in mind.  I wanted to see how much of the above were borne out by other independent studies. (you can read them too if you like at http://www.youthandreligion.org/resources/ref_sex-activity.html)

 

What I saw there was quite fascinating.  The table that follows is what I distilled from reading these studies.