Teenage New Year's Resolution? Maybe Not An Abstinence Pledge

Teenagers searching for a good new year's resolution would do better than to make an abstinence pledge.  How about vowing to have sex only when they are ready, and then to do so safely?  We adults could help out by giving teens the tools they need to keep such a resolution, rather than keeping them in the dark about how to be sexually responsible.

Wash. Post: Premarital Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds, by Rob Stein:

Teenagers Who Make Such Promises Are Just as Likely to Have Sex, and Less Likely to Use Protection, the Data Indicate

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.