New York Times, May 11, 2006
"Patterns of Deceit Raise Concerns About Teenage Sex Surveys"
by Eric Nagourney.
New York, May 10: Does signing a virginity pledge after you have had sex make you a virgin
again?
It hardly seems likely. But how else to explain a new study in which teenagers who said they had had sex in one survey then signed a pledge and told a different story in a survey a year later?
The study, which appears in the June issue of The American Journal of Public Health, was based on surveys by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development involving more than 13,000 students in grades 7 to 12.
The students were questioned two times, a year apart.
The most delicate questions were given through headphones, and the
students typed their answers into a computer.
Among the questions students were asked: "Have you taken a public or written pledge to remain a virgin until marriage?" They were also asked if they had had sexual intercourse.
In the first survey, about 13 percent of the students said they had taken a pledge of virginity. In the second survey, the study found, more than half of that group denied having taken one.
Those who reported having sexual relations for the first time in the second survey were three times as likely to retract a virginity pledge as those who did report having had sex then.
About a third of the students said in the first survey that they had had sex, but about 10 percent of them denied it when asked the second time.
Those who had newly made a pledge were four times as likely to retract reports of sexual activity.
Why did so many students change their stories? "We can't really get inside their heads and know what they're thinking," said the study's author, Janet Rosenbaum, a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Public Health. But the study raises questions about how much reliance
should be placed on surveys about sexual activity among teenagers, and how accurately experts can measure the results of programs that encourage them to abstain from sex to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
"Survey respondents typically reconcile their memories with their present beliefs," the study said. "Respondents may recall only memories consistent with their current beliefs or report actions that did not occur but are consistent with their current beliefs."
Such behavior is not unheard of when it comes to surveys. Studies have found, for example, that people who tell survey takers before an election that it is important to vote are more likely to claim falsely later that they did.
But there is a big difference between what happens in the voting booth and what happens in the bedroom or the car.
"Self-reported voting can be verified with official voting records," Ms. Rosenbaum wrote, "but self-reported sexual abstinence cannot."
Apart from what it says about the reliability of the pledges and abstinence programs, the study also raises concerns about whether they may make tracking sexually transmitted diseases more difficult.
"I think all of this has public health implications, particularly with respect to S.T.D.'s, insofar as we are not getting a clear picture from teens' own report of their sexual activity," said Cynthia Dailard, a public policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a research and advocacy group that studies reproductive rights.
"Patterns of Deceit Raise Concerns About Teenage Sex Surveys"
by Eric Nagourney.
New York, May 10: Does signing a virginity pledge after you have had sex make you a virgin
again?
It hardly seems likely. But how else to explain a new study in which teenagers who said they had had sex in one survey then signed a pledge and told a different story in a survey a year later?
The study, which appears in the June issue of The American Journal of Public Health, was based on surveys by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development involving more than 13,000 students in grades 7 to 12.
The students were questioned two times, a year apart.
The most delicate questions were given through headphones, and the
students typed their answers into a computer.
Among the questions students were asked: "Have you taken a public or written pledge to remain a virgin until marriage?" They were also asked if they had had sexual intercourse.
In the first survey, about 13 percent of the students said they had taken a pledge of virginity. In the second survey, the study found, more than half of that group denied having taken one.
Those who reported having sexual relations for the first time in the second survey were three times as likely to retract a virginity pledge as those who did report having had sex then.
About a third of the students said in the first survey that they had had sex, but about 10 percent of them denied it when asked the second time.
Those who had newly made a pledge were four times as likely to retract reports of sexual activity.
Why did so many students change their stories? "We can't really get inside their heads and know what they're thinking," said the study's author, Janet Rosenbaum, a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Public Health. But the study raises questions about how much reliance
should be placed on surveys about sexual activity among teenagers, and how accurately experts can measure the results of programs that encourage them to abstain from sex to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
"Survey respondents typically reconcile their memories with their present beliefs," the study said. "Respondents may recall only memories consistent with their current beliefs or report actions that did not occur but are consistent with their current beliefs."
Such behavior is not unheard of when it comes to surveys. Studies have found, for example, that people who tell survey takers before an election that it is important to vote are more likely to claim falsely later that they did.
But there is a big difference between what happens in the voting booth and what happens in the bedroom or the car.
"Self-reported voting can be verified with official voting records," Ms. Rosenbaum wrote, "but self-reported sexual abstinence cannot."
Apart from what it says about the reliability of the pledges and abstinence programs, the study also raises concerns about whether they may make tracking sexually transmitted diseases more difficult.
"I think all of this has public health implications, particularly with respect to S.T.D.'s, insofar as we are not getting a clear picture from teens' own report of their sexual activity," said Cynthia Dailard, a public policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a research and advocacy group that studies reproductive rights.
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