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Teen Sex: The New "Midnight Basketball"?
Townhall.com ^ | December 17, 2007 | Carol Platt Liebau

Posted on 12/17/2007 4:28:08 AM PST by Kaslin

Could preteen sex actually be a good thing? In what’s being billed as a blow to conventional wisdom, recent news stories have heralded two studies that appear to assert positive benefits to early sexual experience. The Washington Post reported results of an Ohio State University study finding that “youngsters who have consensual sex in their early-teen or even preteen years are, if anything, less likely to engage in delinquent behavior later on.” Even more recently, ABC News ran a piece with a headline trumpeting “Losing Virginity Later Linked to Sexual Problems,” and a sub-head adding, “Those Who Have Sex Later, Particularly Men, Seem to Experience More Sexual Dysfunction.”

Certainly, the issue of teens and sex has always been a controversial one. But in the past, disagreement focused on whether youths could, in fact, be convinced to remain abstinent; there remained a common assumption that sexual restraint was better for teens and pre-teens than sexual activity. By purporting to suggest that abstinence could actually be affirmatively harmful in certain contexts, these studies represent a radically different challenge to current public consensus about teen sexual activity.

But before Americans begin to reformulate public policy (or rethink plain common sense) based on these results, there are plenty of reasons to be wary. In fact, the authors of the study finding those with a later age of sexual debut experience more sexual problems admit that they found no causal relationship between the two phenomena. In other words, there’s no evidence that waiting to have sex increases the likelihood of sexual dysfunction. Rather, there’s simply a link between the two – which means that it’s just as likely that those who already have sexual problems delay sexual activity in the first place.

As for the study finding that those engaging in consensual teen or pre-teen sex are less likely than their abstinent cohorts to be delinquents, it ignores one important fact right at the outset. Because the age of consent across America is 16 or older, a substantial portion of teen and all pre-teen sex is illegal – and thus constitutes delinquent behavior on its face.

Before teen and pre-teen sex is recast as little more than another recreational activity that will help keep kids out of harm – a slightly more interactive version of midnight basketball, as it were – it’s important to recall that it imposes substantial social costs of its own. Every year, one in four teens is diagnosed with an STD, and the lifetime direct medical costs of just eight of the sexually transmitted diseases contracted by those 15-24 in 2000 alone will total a hefty $6.5 billion. What’s more, it’s been estimated that the cumulative public costs of the teen childbearing between 1991 and 2004 totals $161 billion, even after accounting for factors like race, ethnicity and socioeconomic class.

The individual costs of early sexual activity are likewise substantial. For girls in particular, in addition to the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease, sexual activity also poses substantial emotional and psychological risks. Psychologists have noted that as a result of poor sexual decision-making, girls can experience regret, anxiety, shame, a loss in self-esteem, heartbreak, disappointment and a lifelong inability to trust men. What’s more, one study conducted by the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis found that sexually active girls were three times as likely to suffer from depression as their abstinent peers; another, in the Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that even modest sexual experimentation increases the risk of depression among girls – effectively rebutting claims that depressed girls were more likely to act out sexually in the first place.

Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with conducting research on teen sex and then using it to adjust public policy. What’s dangerous, however, is to allow the results to be misinterpreted, especially by anyone with a preexisting political agenda. It’s worth noting that authors of both studies used them as a predicate for attacking federal abstinence-only programs, a stance reported approvingly in both news stories.

No doubt it’s important to learn what the facts are – whether sexual dysfunction accounts in part for delayed sexual activity, for example, or delayed sexual activity results in dysfunction. But it’s likewise essential to know whether preconceived opinions are driving the research, or whether research will be used to formulate policies that are as consistent with common sense and collective experience as they are with “science.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: moralabsolutes
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1 posted on 12/17/2007 4:28:09 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
Teen Sex: The New "Midnight Basketball"?

One artless jock I knew used to refer to a successful conquest as "taking her to the hoop"...

2 posted on 12/17/2007 4:30:23 AM PST by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
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To: Kaslin

Only if it’s with a hot, blonde teacher!


3 posted on 12/17/2007 4:32:36 AM PST by Incorrigible (If I lead, follow me; If I pause, push me; If I retreat, kill me.)
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To: Kaslin

ABC via BJ?


4 posted on 12/17/2007 4:34:29 AM PST by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: Kaslin

““youngsters who have consensual sex in their early-teen or even preteen years are, if anything, less likely to engage in delinquent behavior later on.”

Preteen?? Meaning 10,11, & 12 year olds. Yeah thats a ticket for success.

Unbelievable


5 posted on 12/17/2007 4:35:39 AM PST by driftdiver
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To: wagglebee; NYer; Coleus; cpforlife.org; holdonnow; HonestConservative; tiredoflaundry; defconw

ping


6 posted on 12/17/2007 4:35:43 AM PST by AliVeritas (The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Stay strong white/dry martyrs.)
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To: driftdiver

Absolutely speechless......


7 posted on 12/17/2007 4:39:08 AM PST by Clintons Are White Trash (Lynn Stewart, Helen Thomas , Maureen Dowd - The Axis of Ugly)
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To: Kaslin
“Those Who Have Sex Later, Particularly Men, Seem to Experience More Sexual Dysfunction.”

I wonder, without having read the original report, whether this could actually be written: “Those Who Experience More Sexual Dysfunction, Particularly Men, Have Sex Later.”

8 posted on 12/17/2007 4:40:39 AM PST by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Kaslin

[cue Hall and Oates— “One On One”]


9 posted on 12/17/2007 4:41:17 AM PST by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich!)
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To: driftdiver

Only a strictly biological level, this is unnatural. Animals don’t mate without reaching sexual maturity.


10 posted on 12/17/2007 4:45:39 AM PST by flintsilver7
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To: Kaslin

Well, once they manage to get people to fall for this crap, the faggots will try to legitimize going after little boys.


11 posted on 12/17/2007 4:48:48 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: Kaslin

Old enough to go to the store........

It’s the *Lolita* complex


12 posted on 12/17/2007 4:53:54 AM PST by wolfcreek (The Status Quo Sucks!)
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To: Gondring
from the article:

Rather, there’s simply a link between the two – which means that it’s just as likely that those who already have sexual problems delay sexual activity in the first place.

13 posted on 12/17/2007 4:55:15 AM PST by dawn53
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To: flintsilver7

[Only a strictly biological level, this is unnatural. Animals don’t mate without reaching sexual maturity.]

Many pre-teen are sexually mature (maybe noy emotionally so). They are not at their sexual peak but they have all the tools.


14 posted on 12/17/2007 4:55:28 AM PST by dbacks (Taglines for sale or rent.)
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To: NativeNewYorker

Only the looney left would be advocating sex between 12 year olds. Yeah those “pre-teens” sure are equipped to handle pregnancy, STD’s, child care etc.

Bunch of Roman Polanski wanna bees.


15 posted on 12/17/2007 4:56:19 AM PST by NavVet (If you don't defend conservatism in the Primary, you won't have it to defend in the Election)
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To: AliVeritas; Kaslin; 230FMJ; 49th; 50mm; 69ConvertibleFirebird; Aleighanne; Alexander Rubin; ...
Moral Absolutes Ping!

Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.

FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
[ Add keyword moral absolutes to flag FR articles to this ping list ]


16 posted on 12/17/2007 4:57:04 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: Kaslin

I suppose every 13 year-old should have an abortion as part of their growing up experience.


17 posted on 12/17/2007 4:57:24 AM PST by Always Right
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To: Kaslin
I’m quite sure our present Congress would be happy to stick a nice earmark for this one in the Defense Appropriations Act.
18 posted on 12/17/2007 5:00:01 AM PST by .cnI redruM (New Republic? Same old Left.)
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To: .cnI redruM

"Send me"

19 posted on 12/17/2007 5:01:59 AM PST by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: Kaslin

It’s far better to emulate Wilt Chamberlain on the midnight basketball court.


20 posted on 12/17/2007 5:02:09 AM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
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