Posted on 07/12/2005 3:23:55 PM PDT by Crackingham
A new study has found that adolescent girls who have good grades and girls who perceive that their parents strongly disapprove of their having sex are less likely than others to contract sexually transmitted diseases by the time they reach young adulthood. The predictors did not apply to boys.
On the other hand, the study found that taking a virginity pledge, being strongly religious or attending a parochial school made no difference in a girl's risk for S.T.D.'s six years later, nor did a parent's attitude, favorable or unfavorable, toward contraception.
Dr. Carol A. Ford, the lead author on the study, said that even though it was obvious that teenagers who abstain from sex don't get S.T.D.'s, prolonging virginity may not help in the long term.
"Our research shows that efforts to reduce S.T.D.'s among young adults cannot rely on efforts aimed at delaying sex among teenagers," she said. Dr. Ford is an associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of North Carolina.
The study, published in the July issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, used data from a national survey of almost 19,000 teenagers. The adolescents were interviewed about their attitudes and behavior when they were ages 12 to 18, and then more than 11,000 of them were tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomonas infection six years later. Among these 18- to 26-year-old adults, 5.3 percent of men and 7.2 percent of women were infected.
Dr. Ford notes that if parents disapprove of their adolescent having sex, they should convey that attitude in no uncertain terms because it could help in reducing levels of sexually transmitted diseases. Offering an opinion about contraception, either for or against, does no harm, so that topic could be broached in the same discussion
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I'm guessing Dr. Carol A. Ford does research at I.B.O. (the Institute of the Blatantly Obvious).
It's sickening--people like "Dr." Ford actually *want* kids to go out and harm themselves mentally, emotionally, and, yes, physically.
Yet they waste so much time and money trying to "protect" them from cigs.
yah.....like, duh!
Yah... sure seems like it comes as a surprise to them..
They are just pointing out the obvious: children are very impressionable, and the values learned at home are going to be much more deeply ingrained than a recent religious conversion which may or may not have been to "go along" with similarly-minded friends. Not that teenage religious conversion can't be genuine and long-lasting, it's just that if it's done with no moral foundation at home, the child may still be vulnerable to peer-pressure in the other moral direction.
This is their agenda: They want to 'prove' that prolonging virginity may not help prevent STD's, therefore, "efforts aimed at delaying sex, (abstinence pledges) won't prevent STD's. Having a hard time swallowing that pill.
Gotta comment here. I went to public and private high schools. The only time I EVER saw drugs . . was at the private, religious, high school.
Very conservative school. . but drugs and sex were rampant. And there were only around 100 kids in the high school itself.
*shrugs*
I'm sure it's because of those "Drug Free Zone" signs around the public schools. Yeah.....that's the ticket.....
I call severe BS. Now, maybe if the "strongly religious" description only applies to the parents and not to the child, this might be true, but if the child is strongly religious, there is no way in hell that it does not affect their risk for STDs
It is talking about risk for std's which is predicated on sexual activity.
Hehehe oh I have no doubt about that. It was just more out in the open in the private one that I attended. When the whole cheerleading squad (who all attended church together mind you and were "good Christians" according to their parents) got busted for snoring coke, that is when I decided to go back to public school.
The private school -- too much money, not enough to do, and parents who try to do everything the "right" way while really ignoring their kids.
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