SEX does NOT equal HAPPINESS
8/20/2007

“Being sexually active actually leads to less happiness among 13-17 year olds, according to the survey. If you're 18 to 24, sex might lead to more happiness in the moment, but not in general.”

To learn more about what makes young people happy, read the survey conducted by MTV and The Associated Press – you may be surprised by the results! http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2007-08-19-1958101914_x.htm

Risky Teen Behaviors Lead to Depression
1/19/2006

A study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine revealed that teenagers who engage in sex and drug use often become depressed as a result, The Associated Press reported.

Experts have long known of a link between depression and risky teen behavior. But depression had been viewed as a catalyst for drug use and sexual activity -- a way to "self-medicate" negative feelings.

Denise Dion Hallfors of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation said the new research proves they've been getting it backwards.

"Findings from the study show depression came after substance and sexual activity," she said, "not the otherway around."

More than 13,000 teens were interviewed in 1995 and again one year later. The results showed sex and drug use was associated with an increased risk of depression, but depression was not a predictor of risky behavior. Girls who had become sexually active and who had experimented with drugs were up to three times more likely to become depressed than those who had not. Boys who used marijuana were more than three times more likely to become depressed than peers who had not. And boys who revealed a tendency to binge drink were almost five times more likely to become depressed than those who did not drink.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: To read the full report, visit The American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Married Adults Healthier than Divorced, Widowed or Never Married Adults
16 Dec 2004

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that married adults are healthier than divorced, widowed or never married adults.

The report, “Marital Status and Health: United States, 1999-2002,” was based on interviews with 127,545 adults aged 18 and over as part of the National Health Interview Survey, conducted by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. The study looked at health status and limitations, health conditions, health related behaviors according to marital status and also by age, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic factors such as education and poverty status.

Among the findings in the report:

-- Nearly 60% of adults are married, 10.4% are separated or divorced, 6.6% are widowed, 19% are never married and 5.7% are living with a partner. Marital status varies greatly among race/ethnic groups: approximately 61 percent of white adults, 58 percent of Hispanic adults, and 38 percent of black adults are married, according to the survey.

-- Married adults are less likely than other adults to be in fair or poor health, and are less likely to suffer from health conditions such as headaches and serious psychological distress.

-- Married adults are less likely be limited in various activities, including work and other activities of daily living.

-- Married adults are less likely to smoke, drink heavily or be physically inactive. However, married men are more likely to be overweight or obese than other men.

-- Adults who live in cohabiting relationships are more likely to have health problems than married adults and more closely resemble divorced and separated adults.

-- The association between marital status and health is most striking in the youngest age group although it persists throughout the age groups studied.

While the results show that married adults are generally in better health than unmarried adults, the reasons for better health status among married adults cannot be determined with cross-sectional data collected in the National Health Interview Survey. The report, “Marital Status and Health: United States, 1999-2002,” is available at the the CDC/NCHS Web site.

Marital Status and Health: United States, 1999-2002. Advance Data, Number 351. 33 pp. (PHS) 2004-1250.
Contact: CDC/NCHS Press Office
(301) 458-4800
E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov

Adolescents and the Dangers of Oral Sex
12/1/04

By Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D.
Some people say it isn't sex. Well then how come it’s causing the rampant spread of genital herpes among America’s young people?

Oral sex is very popular among teens as young as thirteen. Young girls and boys participating in this kind of activity is said to be a common sight at parties of middle schoolers. The saddest part is that they don’t believe they are having sex. Many really think they are protected from the emotional and physical consequences of early sexual activity because, after all, “it’s just oral sex.”

But a study out of the University of Wisconsin has shown the impact of the oral sex rage. There are two basic types of herpes – one kind transmitted orally and the second transmitted through genital contact. In other words, orally transmitted herpes generally stays transmitted mouth to mouth and genitally transmitted herpes generally stays transmitted genital to genital. Studies conducted over the past 20 years have shown that only about 25 percent of the orally transmitted herpes shows up in the genitals. Now, at least according to the research out of the University Wisconsin, the ratios have reversed. Of students at that university who were newly infected with genital herpes in 2001, 78 percent had the type usually associated with oral transmission, but in the genital area.

Simply put, these data show that young people are suffering the consequences of their false sense of security of this form of “not” sex. Oral sex has become a predominant mode of transmission and spread of the most troubling form of herpes – genital herpes. While less than 10 percent of individuals who have genital herpes even know they have the virus, fully 85 percent of these individuals can still spread the virus. In addition to causing painful symptoms in some infected individuals, herpes can also increase the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

It’s time we started warning our kids about oral sex. No parent can stomach picturing his or her sweet, 15-year-old daughter giving oral sex to some high school boy. But it’s happening, and these oral sex parties include the “good kids”. There’s lots of peer pressure to do it because, after all, it’s supposedly not sex and it’s supposedly just a safe, pleasurable activity. And if you do it, girls get convinced, that boy will really like you. Parents who can’t imagine their son or daughter involved, just might be shocked.

And we need to warn them about more than just herpes and other diseases – which are scary enough. The emotional consequences of oral sex can be just as traumatizing to a teenager as intercourse -- especially to girls. There are the same feelings of being used, of low self-esteem, of degradation.

Oral sex – it’s sex, for sure. The disease rates are proving it. And the teenagers feeling emotionally used, they are proving it as well.

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Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D., is president and founder of The Medical Institute for Sexual Health. A non-profit medical organization based in Austin, Tex., The Medical Institute was founded in 1992 to confront the worldwide epidemics of nonmarital pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection with incisive health care

"I can’t have syphilis! I didn’t have sex"!...
The bad news about oral sex and syphilis (and HIV)
(10-21-04)

Many people mistakenly believe that oral sex is safe, unaware that they can readily catch or pass on syphilis in this manner, according to a report put out by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People with syphilis in the mouth may not have any symptoms, or the sores may be mistaken for aphthous ulcers or herpes, the authors point out.

The lesions may carry high concentrations of the germ that causes syphilis, and are thus highly infectious. Also, oral lesions may increase the risk of being infected with HIV.

For many adolescent girls, pregnancy may be no accident USA
22 Jul 2004

As social scientists and health educators grapple with causes of adolescent pregnancy in the United States, some researchers suggest that one component of the problem has been largely ignored. Though most adolescent pregnancies are accidental, a substantial number of girls want to get pregnant.

Susan L. Davies, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Public Health and colleagues, questioned 455 low-income, African-American adolescent girls in Birmingham, Ala., aged 14-18 between 1996 and 1999, and found that nearly a quarter (23.6 percent) expressed some desire to become pregnant in the near future.

“Adolescent pregnancy research has predominantly focused on factors associated with pregnancy occurrence and overlooked the possibility that pregnancy is a desired outcome for some adolescents,” Davies says. Instead, she adds, successful pregnancy prevention programs need to discern between factors that contribute to intentional versus accidental pregnancies among teen girls.

In their research, published in the August 2004 issue of Health Education & Behavior, Davies and her team tried to identify some of those factors. Self-administered questionnaires asked participants about their desire to be pregnant, their relationships with males and their birth control use.

The most striking data revealed that adolescent girls with at least some desire to be pregnant were three-and-a-half times more likely to have a boyfriend or partner at least five years older, were more than twice as likely to have had sex with a casual partner in the six months prior to the survey and also more than twice as likely to have used condoms inconsistently in the prior month.

While the researchers say the likelihood of a significantly older partner was surprising, the frequency of girls with a desire to be pregnant having casual sexual partners was more telling.

“These findings suggest that the perceived role of the male partner in parenthood, other than to assist with conception, may be minimal from the adolescent girl’s perspective,” Davies says.

Considering that adolescent girls who want to be pregnant behave in ways that will help them meet their goal, researchers say, public health practitioners and policy makers will need to address this particular population with a tailored campaign. Some suggestions the researchers make include education to help this population understand the realities of motherhood, amending health education programs that assume adolescents regard pregnancy as negatively as they view HIV and other STDs, and increasing public recognition that adolescent childbearing is “a symptom of larger social and economic predicaments.”

The study was supported by a grant from the Center for Mental Health Research on AIDS, National Institute of Mental Health.

By Will O'Bryan, Staff Writer
Health Behavior News Service,
(202) 387-2829 or www.hbns.org
Interviews: Contact Susan L. Davies at (205) 934-6020 or sdavies@uab.edu;
or Joy Carter, University of Alabama at Birmingham Office of Public Relations and Marketing,
at (205) 934-1676 or mjcarter@uab.edu.
Health Education & Behavior: Contact Elaine Auld at (202) 408-9804.

Center for the Advancement of Health
Contact: Ira R. Allen
Director of Public Affairs
202.387.2829
press@cfah.org

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=11097

RESULTS OF TWO NEW STUDIES FROM HERITAGE FOUNDATION REVEALED AT PRESS CONFERENCE
POSTED: JUN 30, 2004

Results of Two New Studies from Heritage Foundation Revealed at Press Conference
Jessemyn Pekari, National Abstinence Clearinghouse

At a press conference held on June 24 at the 8th Annual Conference of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse in Nashville, Tennessee, the Heritage Foundation released its analysis of two new studies. Both reports give further credibility to the abstinence until marriage message, showing that abstinence programs offer youth the best chance at a happy and healthy life.

“Teens Who Make Virginity Pledges Have Substantially Improved Life Outcomes,” published by Robert Rector and Kirk Johnson, assessed the results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a program project funded through a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. In it, students who took virginity pledges were followed for a period of years to see if they remained true to their pledges. The study found, after three separate analysis spaced years apart, that pledgers were 1/3 less likely than non-pledgers to have sex before the age of 18, were 50% less likely to have out-of-wedlock births than non-pledgers, and, contrary to public opinion, were not more likely to have or gain a sexually transmitted disease.

“Comprehensive Sex Education vs. Authentic Abstinence…A study of Competing Curricula,” written by Robert Rector, Shannan Martin, and Melissa G. Pardue, compared the content of nine popular authentic abstinence programs with nine popular contraception programs (what schools call “comprehensive sex education programs”). The results showed that authentic abstinence curricula devoted more than 70% of its content to the message of abstinence and healthy marriages, while “sex education” programs devoted only 4.7% of its entire content to abstinence, and 28.7% of its content to the actual promotion of contraception. Of the curricula reviewed, abstinence education curricula devoted 15 times as much of its content to abstinence education as “sex education” programs did.

ADOLESCENTS WHO TAKE VIRGINITY PLEDGES HAVE LOWER RATES OF OUT-OF-WEDLOCK BIRTHS
POSTED: MAR 30, 2004
by Kirk A. Johnson
Center for Data Analysis Report #04-04
Read the Paper

Young women who take a virginity pledge are about 40 percent less likely to have a child out of wedlock when compared to similar young women who do not make such a pledge, according to recently released data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. These dramatic findings are sustained when background factors, such as socioeconomic status, race, religiosity, and other relevant variables, are held constant. This finding strongly suggests the potential for abstinence education programs to reduce teen pregnancy and out-of-wedlock childbearing.

Background

For more than a decade, organizations such as True Love Waits have encouraged young people to abstain from sexual activity. As part of these programs, young people are encouraged to take a verbal or written pledge to abstain from sex until marriage. In recent years, increased public policy attention has been focused on adolescents who take these "virginity pledges" as policymakers seek to assess the social and behavioral outcomes of such abstinence programs.

To that end, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (hereafter simply Add Health),1 originally a survey of junior high and high school-aged students funded by the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies, began asking adolescents whether they have taken such a virginity pledge in 1994. These students were tracked through high school and into early adulthood. By 2001, most of the youth in the survey were between the ages of 19 and 25, old enough to evaluate the relationship between pledging and a number of social outcomes.

One key outcome of public policy interest is out-of-wedlock births. Some 1.35 million children are born out of wedlock annually, and have been in recent years, representing roughly one-third of all births in the United States. Children raised by single parents are seven times more likely to live in poverty than are children raised in intact homes, and they are much more likely to be dependent on welfare programs and to suffer from a wide range of other social maladies.2

Analysis of the Add Health data shows that youths who make virginity pledges are less likely to have out-of-wedlock births. Specifically:

Some 14 percent of young women who had taken a virginity pledge had had a child out of wedlock. This compares with 29 percent among those women who had not taken a pledge.

In other words, the out-of-wedlock childbearing rate among women who had taken a virginity pledge in their youth was 50 percent lower than that of women who had not taken such a pledge.

One plausible explanation for this difference in out-of-wedlock childbearing is that pledgers differ from non-pledgers in important social background factors such as socioeconomic status, race, religiosity, and school performance. It is possible that these background factors, rather than the pledge per se, account for the differences in rates of out-of-wedlock childbearing. To investigate this possibility, we performed a multivariate logistic regression analysis, which held relevant background factors constant.

In this statistical procedure, girls who took a virginity pledge were compared to non-pledging girls who were otherwise identical with regard to race, income, family structure, religiosity, and other background conditions. This analysis showed that girls who had taken the pledge were still about 40 percent less likely to have children out of wedlock when compared to otherwise identical girls who had not taken a pledge. Thus, the virginity pledge itself was found to have a strong independent effect in predicting lower levels of out-of-wedlock childbearing. The effect of taking a virginity pledge on reducing out-of-wedlock births was statistically significant, at the 99.6 percent confidence level.

Data and Methodology

The analysis of the Add Health data utilized a logistic regression to assess the likelihood of an out-of-wedlock birth (or births) among young women while holding constant a number of factors that may be related to having a child out of wedlock. The independent variables included in the regression included:

Family status (whether or not a youth came from a single-parent family, cohabiting family, intact married family, or married stepfamily);
Family income at the time of the initial Add Health survey;
Religiosity (how important religion is to the individual, how often the individual attends religious services, and related measures);
Self-worth and self-esteem, measured by an index of 11 items;
School performance, measured by a student's grade point average;
Race; and
Virginity pledge status (a youth's response to the Add Health survey questions asking adolescents, "Have you taken a public or written pledge to remain a virgin until marriage?").

When all of these factors are held constant, important differences in out-of-wedlock childbearing are apparent by pledge status. Chart 1 shows the differences in out-of-wedlock childbearing rates between pledgers and non-pledgers for three different racial groups.

Discussion

These findings are consistent with prior research on the potential impact of virginity pledge programs. Young people who make deliberate public pledges to remain virgins are likely to substantially delay the initiation of sexual activity, have fewer sexual partners, and are more likely to marry. These behaviors, in turn, are likely to lead to lower rates of out-of-wedlock childbearing. The current findings strongly suggest that abstinence education programs that clearly encourage young people to delay sexual activity can, potentially, have a large positive effect on youth behaviors and life outcomes.

In the last decade, abstinence education programs have become increasingly popular. The best abstinence programs teach adolescents:

The primary importance of delaying sexual activity;

That human sexual relationships are predominantly emotional and moral rather than merely physical in character; and

That teen abstinence is an important step leading toward a loving marital relationship as an adult.

Abstinence education programs stand in sharp contrast to the "safe sex" or "comprehensive sex education" curricula that often permeate America's public school classrooms. In general, these sex-ed curricula fail to provide a message to delay sexual activity, fail to deal adequately with the long-term emotional and moral aspects of sexuality, and fail to explain that sexual activity should be linked to love, commitment, and intimacy. True abstinence education programs, on the other hand, are uniquely suited to meeting both the emotional and the physical needs of America's youth.3

Conclusion

At present, there are 10 studies or evaluations that show the effectiveness of abstinence education programs in reducing teen sexual activity.4 Several additional studies demonstrating the effectiveness of abstinence education are being completed or are under review at academic journals. The findings in this paper add to the growing evidence showing the potential effectiveness of abstinence education as a means to positively change youths' behavior.

Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., is Senior Policy Analyst in the Center for Data Analysis, and Robert Rector is Senior Research Fellow in Domestic Policy, at The Heritage Foundation.
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1. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (addhealth@unc.edu).

2. See, for example, Robert Rector, Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., and Patrick F. Fagan, "The Effect of Marriage on Child Poverty," Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis Report No. CDA02-04, April 15, 2002, at www.heritage.org/Research/Family/CDA02-04.cfm; Robert Rector, Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., and Patrick F. Fagan, "Understanding Differences in Black and White Child Poverty Rates," Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis Report No. CDA01-04, May 24, 2001, at www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/CDA01-04.cfm; and Linda J. Waite and Maggie Gallagher, The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially (New York: Doubleday, 2000).

3. Robert E. Rector, Melissa G. Pardue, and Shannan Martin, "What Do Parents Want Taught in Sex Education Programs?" Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1722, January 28, 2004, at www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1722.cfm.

4. Robert Rector, "The Effectiveness of Abstinence Education Programs in Reducing Sexual Activity Among Youth," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1533, April 8, 2002, at www.heritage.org/Research/Family/BG1533.cfm.

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© 1995 - 2004 The Heritage Foundation
All Rights Reserved.

GOV'T SPENDING ON CONTRACEPTION OUTPACES ABSTINENCE FUNDING 12 TO 1
POSTED: JAN 14, 2004
Executive Summary
For Immediate Release
Contact: Deanna Grimm
(605) 335-3643

GOV’T SPENDING ON CONTRACEPTION OUTPACES ABSTINENCE FUNDING 12 TO ONE

WASHINGTON, JAN. 14, 2004—Despite overwhelming evidence of the dangers of early sexual activity, the federal and state governments spend much more to promote “safe sex” than they do to encourage abstinence, according to a new study from The Heritage Foundation.

Combined, government spends 12 times more promoting family planning and contraception than it does promoting abstinence. In funding specifically targeted toward teenagers, governments spent nearly $4.50 on contraception for every $1 spent promoting abstinence in 2002.

Yet these spending priorities are the opposite of what the vast majority of parents say they want taught to their teens. In a recent Zogby poll, 85 percent of parents said the emphasis placed on abstinence for teens should be equal or greater than the emphasis placed on contraception. Only 8 percent said teaching teens to use condoms is more important than teaching them abstinence.

“Most safe sex/comprehensive sex-ed programs send a clear message that society expects and condones teen sexual activity,” write social policy experts Melissa Pardue, Robert Rector and Shannan Martin. “The main message is it’s OK for teens to have sex as long as they use condoms.”

However, surveys show that’s not what parents want their children to be taught. True abstinence programs—those that encourage teens to wait until marriage to begin sexual activity—are popular with parents because they work, the authors write. Despite this, “there is currently relatively little government funding for abstinence education,” they say.

Many safe-sex or “comprehensive sex-ed” programs use graphic sexual materials that would alarm most parents, according to the authors. For example, the program “Focus on Kids” encourages middle- and high school couples to bathe together, masturbate, watch erotic movies and read explicit magazines. And a curriculum sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control urges these same-aged students to “think up a fantasy using condoms” and “use condoms as a method of foreplay.” Often, proponents of these programs promote them using the deceptive label “abstinence plus,” Rector says.

“Abstinence programs make the most of the small amount they have,” said Leslee Uuruh, president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, headquartered in Sioux Falls. “Abstinence education saves the country money by eliminating teen parents and teen sexually transmitted disease cases. People who abstain do not become pregnant or sick with an STD.”

“Those that support condom education have been calling for years for a level playing field,” continued Unruh. “I agree, give equal funding to abstinence education. With the millions and billions sex education receives, look at the all the teen sex. Imagine if we gave millions and billions to abstinence. The message would expand and the rate of unmarried sex will drop.”

When Congress considers reauthorizing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families later this year, “any new monies devoted to preventing pregnancy should be directed not to amply funded contraception programs, but to underfunded abstinence education programs,” Pardue, Rector and Martin write. That, they say, is the best way to encourage teens to delay sexual activity and help them prepare for intimacy, fidelity and a healthy marriage.

Mutant HIV Infections Challenge Researchers
July 15, 2003

Evidence is growing that "superinfection" with more than one strain of HIV) may be more common than previously thought, which could complicate efforts to make a vaccine, experts said Monday at an international AIDS conference.

Scientists reported three new cases of HIV-infected people who initially were doing well without drugs but became sick years later after contracting a second strain of the AIDS virus.

"Superinfection is sobering," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the chief U.S. AIDS research agency. He was not involved in the studies.

"That means that although you can mount an adequate response against one virus, the body still does not have the capability to protect you against new infection, which tells you that the development of a vaccine is going to be even more of a challenge."

Fauci said it is too early to tell how big a problem superinfection will become but that he does not believe superinfections are the reason patients on treatment can suddenly deteriorate.

None of the patients in the three cases discussed at the conference were being treated for HIV, which can become resistant to drugs over time.

At the meeting, Dr. Luc Perrin, a professor of clinical virology at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, reported finding superinfections in two Swiss intravenous drug users. In the study, Perrin followed 136 drug users with HIV and found that the amount of HIV in the blood of five patients suddenly shot up after years of control without drugs.

Tests confirmed that two of the five had a superinfection, Perrin said.

"I think superinfection most of the time is transient and is not detected," he said. "It may be that you are more frequently infected than you think but that frequently, you are able to take care of it."

In another study, Dr. Harold Burger of Albany Medical College in Albany, N.Y., said genetic tests on a superinfected woman showed the two viruses mixed and produced a hybrid that took over from the original virus.

Although the development of a hybrid was not surprising — scientists estimate there are 14 mixed strains circulating — the report is the first documented case of two HIV strains, or subtypes, combining in one person to form a third strain.

"The issue is can you get a vaccine that will cover all subtypes?" said Dr. Anton Pozniak, an AIDS specialist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, who was not connected with the research.

"Say you do. Imagine somebody with a subtype 'C' has sex with someone with subtype 'A' and the two viruses then, circulating in the blood, combine in some way and suddenly some vaccine, because the infection is an 'A/C,' won't work," he said. "Or, perhaps an 'A/C' is more virulent and will attack the immune system in a much more aggressive way than either the 'A' or the 'C' — These are all theoretical possibilities."

Surveys of HIV patients have found many mixtures of virus strains. Scientists suspect they occur when two viruses mix in the bloodstream, but this is the first time they've proven it can happen that way, Pozniak said.

"We just don't know how common it is. People say it's rare but we just don't know," Pozniak said.

"This reinforces the message that we've got to stop HIV today so that we can deal with what we have now and not generate a whole load of new mutants that wouldn't have been there otherwise," Pozniak said.

Strong Religious Views Decrease Teens' Likelihood of Having Sex. Teens' Attitudes Towards Sex Hold More Sway than Religious Views
April 22, 2003

Findings in Brief:
Teens-particularly girls-with strong religious views are less likely to have sex than are less religious teens, largely because their religious views lead them to view the consequences of having sex negatively. According to a recent analysis of the NICHD-funded Add Health Survey, religion reduces the likelihood of adolescents engaging in early sex by shaping their attitudes and beliefs about sexual activity.

The study also found that parents' religious beliefs and attitudes toward sex did not directly influence teens' decisions to have sex. Rather, parents' attitudes toward sex seemed to influence their teens' own attitudes toward sex, and indirectly, their teens' behavior.

When teens do have sex, their beliefs about the consequences of sexual activity become more permissive-meaning more positive or favorable-but their religious views do not change. In particular, adolescent girls who had sex reported that they were more positive about having sex in the future. However, the greatest predictor of whether teens would have sex-regardless of their religious views or attitudes-was whether or not they were dating.

Implications:
Sexual intercourse places teens at risk for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, and unintended pregnancy. The information provided by the study may prove important for health researchers and planners devising programs that help prevent teens from engaging in sexual activity.

"A better understanding of why religious adolescents are less likely to engage in early sexual intercourse may help in designing prevention programs for this behavior," said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the NICHD.

Study Publication:
Social Forces, March 2003

Reason for the Study:
To better understand the connection between adolescents' religious beliefs and practices, their attitudes about sex and the probability of first sex, and to find out whether having sex for the first time subsequently influences religious attitudes and practices.

Background:
Earlier studies have found that strength of religious beliefs and participation in religious activities are more important than religious denomination in predicting whether a teenager has sex. While previous research has examined religious and sexual beliefs, and how they relate to sexual activity, most previous research was unable to distinguish the effects of religious attitudes and practices on sexual activity from the effects of sexual activity on religious attitudes and practices. This study uses information from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a comprehensive survey of 90,000 seventh through twelfth graders. The survey measured the effects of family, peer group, school, neighborhood, religious institution, and community on behaviors that promote good health. Detailed information about the survey is available at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth.

Study Details:
Ann M. Meier of the University of Wisconsin-Madison analyzed information collected during 1995 and 1996 from the NICHD-funded Add Health Survey. The analysis focused on responses from a smaller group of adolescents within the larger study: 4,948 adolescents ages 15 to 18 who were virgins when they first responded to the survey. Adolescents were interviewed twice, with a year between the interviews. The researchers asked the teenagers about their participation in religious activities and the importance of religion in their lives, their beliefs about how having sex would affect them and people close to them, and whether they were in a dating relationship. One parent for each teenager-usually the mother-answered questions on his or her attitude toward the adolescent having sex.

Findings in Depth:
Religious beliefs influenced whether adolescents will have sex, especially for girls. However, such beliefs only had a minor influence on whether boys had sex. As might be expected, for both girls and boys, more permissive attitudes -meaning more positive or favorable-towards sex increased the likelihood that they would have sex. Having sex did not affect boys' or girls' religious beliefs. After having sex, however, girls' attitudes about sex were likely to become more positive or favorable.

The study also found that teen boys are more likely to have positive attitudes about sex, so that having sex doesn't significantly change their attitudes, as it does girls'.

Another finding is that adolescents' own religious and sexual attitudes were more important predictors of their subsequent sexual behavior than were their parents' attitudes toward adolescent sex.

"Parents' religious and sexual attitudes don't directly affect their children's decision to have sex, but they do influence the formation of their children's own attitudes toward sex," says Meier.

Study Strengths:
All potentially sensitive parts of the interviews were conducted through an audio computer program so that the teens could answer honestly without fear of interviewer disapproval. The year-long interval between interviews reduced the possibility of adolescents making errors in recalling events and feelings.

Study Limitations:
The study cannot distinguish whether sexual experience directly changed girls' attitudes about having sex or if their change in attitude reflected a way to justify their having had sex.

This study was limited to adolescents ages 15 and older, and the study's findings may not apply to younger adolescents.

Finally, this study reports only on short-term effects of religious beliefs on sexual attitudes and of first sex on sexual attitudes and religious values - within a year of first sex. The researcher does not know the long-term effects of either. Findings from a third interview with the same survey participants will be available this year.

###

The NICHD is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the biomedical research arm of the federal government. NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. NICHD celebrates its fortieth anniversary in 2003. NICHD publications, as well as information about the Institute, are available from the NICHD Web site, http://www.nichd.nih.gov, or from the NICHD Clearinghouse, 1-800-370-2943; E-mail NICHDClearinghouse@mail.nih.gov.

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