Many Teenagers Who Say They Have Taken a Virginity Pledge Retract That Statement After Having Intercourse

Abstract

Teenagers responses to questions about their sexual intentions and behavior often are inconsistent over time possibly because of changes in young peoples social circumstances and identities according to an analysis of data collected in two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health).1 Half of youth who reported in Wave 1 that they had committed themselves to remaining abstinent until marriage reported no such commitment when interviewed again roughly a year later. The odds of such a reversal at Wave 2 were elevated among adolescents who had initiated intercourse between interviews and among those who repudiated born-again Christianity in the second interview. Similarly one in 10 teenagers who initially reported being sexually experienced claimed never to have had sex when asked in the second interview; the odds of this change were raised among those who had taken a virginity pledge and those who said they had been born again since Wave 1. (excerpt)