Thread: Virgin at 18? Here's a Big Payoff!

Teens who remain virgins throughout high school may think they're missing out on some of the fun, but the reality is their sexually active peers are the ones missing out.

The study: A new study from the Christian group Focus on the Family analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth that was conducted in waves from 1979 to 2000 with 3,750 men and 3,620 women. It controlled for ethnicity and previous educational or economic disadvantage. About half the students were virgins at 18 and half were not. Students were surveyed at age 18 and again at age 38.


The results: When the two groups were evaluated 20 years after their high school graduation, the data showed that both the male and female high school students who remained virgins at least until age 18 enjoyed huge advantages as adults, compared to those who had had sex in high school:

They completed an average of one year more of higher education.
Their incomes were 20 percent higher.
They had about half the risk of divorce.



"It is very much as we suspected--that adolescent virginity has a significant impact on well-being in middle adulthood," said lead study author Reginald Finger, M.D. "We found, as well, that these better outcomes were not merely the result of avoiding teenage pregnancy or fatherhood. The outcomes are inherent to remaining abstinent. In addition, we found that female virgins were more likely than their non-virgin counterparts to have a positive financial net worth and were almost half as likely as non-virgins to use welfare benefits."

The research findings were published in the journal Adolescent and Family Health.

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/love...t18/virginat18





Advice to Teen Girls: Why You Should Ditch the Boyfriend [Netscape] http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news...chtheboyfriend

What Makes You a Virgin? [Janis Cortese] http://www.io.com/~wwwomen/sexuality/virginity.html

A Daring New Sex Education Tactic [Netscape] http://channels.netscape.com/ns/love...ic/sexedtactic

Abstinence: Things to Do Besides Sex [AskMen] http://www.askmen.com/love/love_tip_60/68_love_tip.html

Talking to Your Kids About Sex [iVillage] http://parenting.ivillage.com/teen/t...,,428g,00.html

Im not saying that being a virgin till you are 18 is bad, but I do not believe this is a good study. It is like comparing apples and oranges. We have had to study research in nursing class, and I would need more info to determine if it was a valid and reliable study. There have also been studies done to show that shoe size is positively correlated to intelligence (meaning as shoe size goes up so does intelligence), however it is not a valid study as one has nothing to do with the other. I would have to know the drop out rate, who performed the study, what instrument they used to test this (and what was he pearson R of this study, reliability coeffecient), what questions were asked, how did they ensure the persons were virgins even at 18 because that would be hard to prove especially for a guy, how did they ensure control for ethnicity and previous educational or economic disadvantage, how did they control for bias (as it is a Christian group), what is the complete reference to the study so I can look at the study myself, etc. before I could say that this is a valid and reliable study.

As the mother of a 9 yo DD and a 16 yo DS - THANK YOU for those links.