Virginity pledges not always kept - study

A survey of American teenagers who publicly pledged to remain virgins until marriage has found that more than half of them broke their vow within a year.

The study, published in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health, also raises concerns about the reliability of young people in reporting their sexual experiences.

Researcher Janet Rosenbaum analysed data from a national survey by the National Institute of Child Health Development, covering more than 13,000 youngsters between the ages of 12 and 18.

She found that 52 percent of those who said they had signed virginity pledges had had sex within 12 months, while 73 percent of those who reported taking a virginity pledge, but later had sex, denied making such a promise when they were surveyed a second time.

Many abstinence programmes have embraced the concept of virginity pledges as a way of encouraging young people to delay their sexual debut. Evangelical Christian groups sponsor most such programmes in the United States but groups in other parts of the world hard-hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic have also emphasised virginity as a way to reduce HIV transmission.

According to the Washington Post, previous studies have found that teenagers who make pledges contract STDs at nearly the same rate as those who do not, and although they tend to have fewer sexual partners, are less likely to use condoms.