Information and Resources

Virginity Pledge Works

Jan. 4, 2001 -- The virginity pledge movement made headlines in the early 1990s, as Southern Baptist teens across the country vowed not to have sex until marriage. A new study shows that such pledges actually can work in keeping some teens chaste -- maybe not until they reach the altar, but at least a bit longer.

"Adolescents who take a virginity pledge delay sexual activity much longer than other kids -- as much as one year to 18 months longer," says study author Peter S. Bearman, PhD, director of the Institute for Social and Economic Theory and Research at Columbia University in New York. The study, co-authored by Hannah Brückner, PhD, a sociology professor at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., appears in the January issue of the American Journal of Sociology.

In the paper, they analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a comprehensive in-home survey of 20,000 teenagers across the U.S.

An estimated 2.5 million teens have taken virginity pledges since 1993 when the movement began, Bearman says. At least 80 pledge groups now exist across the country -- most run by teens themselves, some run by adults. While moral issues are at the core, the objective also is to protect teens from sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.

What draws kids to taking a pledge? "There's a sense of uniqueness and belonging to a special community," Bearman tells WebMD. Pledging works to curtail behavior, he says, because it "brings together adolescents into a moral community and helps them develop an identity."

Like any trend, pledging can lose its appeal. "If there were too many pledgers in a school, kids were no more likely to delay sex than other kids," Bearman says. "For just that reason, pledging will never work as a national program." He also found that if there were too few, or no other pledgers in the school, kids also would lose their commitment.

What types of teens were more likely to pledge? Most were more likely to be religious, of Asian ancestry, to have scored lower on a verbal vocabulary test, to be less advanced in pubertal development, and to be in a romantic relationship.

It also was found that, "regardless whether adolescent girls pledge or not, they have less self-esteem after they have sex," Bearman tells WebMD.

Age played an important role in how well kids kept their pledges. The pledge had no effect on kids who were 18 and over. But for teens aged 16 and 17 -- when kids are likely to first have sex -- virginity pledges kept them chaste. Among younger kids -- aged 12 to 15 -- the pledge's effect was strongest, Bearman says.

"Some critics have said that kids who make such pledges are those who are less likely to have sex early anyway," he tells WebMD. "But our findings show that pledging will delay first sex even longer."