Previous | Next 

Edmonton, Alta.
Study finds chastity pledges really do work


Although Robin Kurpjuweit of Medicine Hat, Alta., is not married, he still wears a gold ring on the ring finger of his left hand. He was given the band by his parents in September 1998 and has worn it ever since. Not only does he plan to marry a girl who has remained pure until marriage, he plans to remain chaste as well.

“It’s a true-love-waits ring,” he explains. “When I get married, I’m going to melt it down and custom-make my wife’s wedding band out of it. Until then, it’s my chastity ring.”

Kurpjuweit, 19, is one of a growing number of young people making a public pledge to maintain his virginity, believing that sex is a sacred act reserved for marriage.

True Love Waits, an international campaign organized by a US Southern Baptist church, has encouraged 2.5 million teens to pledge publicly to remain celibate until marriage. In Canada, however, where at least half of all teen girls aged 15 to 19 are sexually active, the pledging movement has been slower to take off. Still, a number of groups, including Challenge Team, based in Ontario, have been favourably received in schools and church groups across the country, offering talks to teens about the benefits of abstinence.

Advocates of chastity pledging have always maintained it gives teens a unique identity and further delays the age of their first sexual encounter, helping to lower the rate of teen pregnancy and abortion.

Until now, there has been little quantified evidence that pledging itself does help teens remain chaste. However, a new study, published in the American Journal of Sociology in January 2001, has found that teens who take a virginity pledge delay their first sexual encounter up to 18 months longer than their peers. The data considered in the study was gathered at the height of the pledge movement between 1994 and 1996, from completed questionnaires filled out by 19,000 US teens from 141 schools.

Explains the study’s co-author, Dr. Peter Bearman of Columbia University, “Teens pledge because they do not want to have sex. They do not need to pledge to avoid it, but it helps them.” On average, the pledge delays the sexual debut by 34%. Pledging is most effective with younger teens; however, the effect disappears somewhat if pledging becomes commonplace. By appealing to a teen’s need to fit in, pledging “creates a moral community. Pledgers take on a unique identity,” notes Bearman.

Critics of pledging charge the celibacy movement is based on the assumption that sexual relations belong only in the context of marriage. While not all may believe that the idea of saving sex for marriage is necessarily negative, some of the more vocal critics say chastity is an unrealistic vision which reinforces traditional gender roles and idealistic images of romantic love, of which they do not approve. Furthermore, some critics fear pledging will lead impatient teens to rush into marriage because they find it hard to wait to have sex, leading to a higher divorce rate.

Abstinence advocates retort that neither information nor contraceptives have prevented a rising epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, many of them new and some even deadly, from sweeping through the youth population of North America.

Bonnie Johnson, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Canada, is strongly critical of abstinence programs. In the National Post, she states that such programs are filled with misinformation about contraception, which leads to teens “coming into our office wanting abortions.” She insists, “What we know works best is a program that includes the choice of not being sexually active, but then tells people how to prevent disease and pregnancy.”

Bearman readily acknowledges his research found that pledgers who break their promise and have sex are less likely to use contraceptives. But he says those who do end up having sex before marriage feel no worse about themselves than their sexually active peers, and still delay their first sexual encounter.

At 19, Kurpjuweit admits he had found it slightly more difficult to maintain his virginity in the face of increased temptation. However, he remains committed to his pledge.

“I view sex as sacred,” he says. “I look at some of the pain it has caused my friends already. This is something extremely special, and I’m waiting to share it with the person I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.”

 – National Report

Previous | Next 

Last modified July 10, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.