According to a new report by the CDC, fewer kids today are engaging in sexual intercourse during their teenage years than they were just a decade ago.
This finding will likely shock Hollywood producers, comprehensive sex ed advocates, and others who think teenagers are mindless bundles of hormones that cannot be expected to resist their sexual urges. So what’s the motivation behind this teen abstinence trend? According to the report:
The most frequent reason given for not having had sex remained the same as it had been in 2002: that it is ‘‘against religion or morals.’’ Among teenagers who had never had sex, 41% of females and 31% of males chose this as their main reason for not having had sex.
The fact that so many teens are able to remain chaste in our sex-saturated culture is nothing short of miraculous. Pray that this trend continues.
(Via: The Atlantic Wire)
November 16th, 2011 | 12:14 pm
Before I read the entire report, are you sure you’re justified in talking about teens remaining chaste? Is the sexual intercourse being swapped with chastity or with non-intercourse types of sex like oral sex?
November 16th, 2011 | 1:25 pm
Quick! Someone tell HHS! We need to reverse this trend!
November 16th, 2011 | 4:40 pm
Thanks for the graph. It shows “everyone is doing it” to be a lie. Actually, most of the people we know were virgins when they got married.
When the ob/gyn mentioned the Gardasil vaccine for my daughter, immediately “El que corre agusto no se cansa” (He who runs for pleasure doesn’t tire) went through my mind. I will teach her as my parents taught me: to want to give herself only to the man God has for her, and to stay away from anything that might subtract from that. The enemy comes to steal, and to destroy and kill. Jesus has come that we may have life.
November 16th, 2011 | 9:19 pm
“When the ob/gyn mentioned the Gardasil vaccine for my daughter, immediately “El que corre agusto no se cansa” (He who runs for pleasure doesn’t tire) went through my mind.”
What does that have to do with a vaccination?
November 16th, 2011 | 10:56 pm
That’s what went through my mind–probably in response to the doctor’s assumption that “everyone is doing it.” We’ll probably vaccinate our kids anyway because of our belief that it’s better for the population to be vaccinated in general and because our kids are no less capable of making a mistake than anyone else–but we do have better expectations for them.
November 17th, 2011 | 6:42 am
If it helps, it might not even be about your daughter making a mistake. Whose to say she won’t marry a man who had a brief encounter in his youth and is carrying the virus without knowing it. In terms of health economics I’m not sure the vaccine is worth it. It’s about $400 right? On average you can probably save more life years for $400 spent with some other preventatives measures. Then again if we can eliminate 90%+ of all cervical cancers that would be a great thing.
I’m not quite sure how the Latin phrase means “everyone’s doing it”?
November 17th, 2011 | 8:21 am
Actually, most of the people we know were virgins when they got married.
I don’t know many people who were virgins when they married (at least not of my generation).
But I sure know a lot of people who wish they could take it back. Quite apart from religious teachings: we need to teach all of our kids – even the atheist ones – the whole truth about premarital sex.
Our schools teach a version of “the truth” that deliberately excludes anything that might make them think of having premature, careless sex as being something they’re likely to regret even if they don’t get pregnant or get a disease.
November 17th, 2011 | 11:44 am
[...] “Fewer Teens Are Having Sex,” Joe Carter, First Things [...]
November 17th, 2011 | 3:15 pm
I have to echo Boonton’s comments. Just because someone is a virgin doesn’t mean they’re chaste. Having gone to a Catholic high school myself, I can attest to people who were doing every sort of sexual activity besides intercourse (oral sex, mutual masturbation, etc), but still called themselves virgins.
November 17th, 2011 | 8:46 pm
I did skim the report and it seems to be focused only on intercourse unless I missed something. I don’t have any links offhand but I do recall reports establishing the rise of non-intercourse sex after the 1980′s, esp. oral sex. Some partisan types tried to blame it on Clinton (the whole issue of whether just getting oral sex from Monika meant he could say under oath he didn’t have sex with her), but a more likely culprit IMO was the rise of AIDS in the 1980′s.
I can attest to people who were doing every sort of sexual activity besides intercourse (oral sex, mutual masturbation, etc), but still called themselves virgins.
I think here we have a good candidate for a ‘social construct’. In earlier ages virginity was defined as a woman who had not had intercourse. While oral sex and hand jobs were probably not encouraged, an intact hymen was all that was required to ‘prove virginity’. Today it seems to have morphed into a statement of being able to have never given into sexual desire in any form, hence the fretting over whether to call masturbators and others who engage in various sexual acts virgins.
November 17th, 2011 | 9:20 pm
“Whose to say she won’t marry a man who had a brief encounter in his youth and is carrying the virus without knowing it. ”
That’s why I’ll encourage my daughters to consider getting it as part of their prenup medical workup. By itself, it doesn’t much make sense as a reason to get a vaccine of unknown effective duration in the preteen years.
November 17th, 2011 | 10:15 pm
I will be 36 on 12. 02. 11…. I am a virgin and I am chaste. the reason for this is a simple one. I felt that the future of my future depended on it. So, you might wonder how I came up with this. To tell you the truth, it in part had to do with my faith as a Christian, but more because of my life experience. I think it was Ben franklin that said, “A wise man learns, not from trying things himself, but through the eyes of one who fails”, this is my philosophy. My family is a broken one, full of misery and pain. My parents divorced because of bad choices in marriage. It destroyed my mom and my dad isn’t much better. I’m not about to put my future through that pain. I began at a young age evaluating the pros and cons of physical intimacy. My journey made me question my peers; in what they called “physical bliss”. After seeing the pain they would all go through. I knew, I was making the right choices. It wasn’t easy and as time goes-by, I wonder if it isn’t getting harder to hold fast to what I know true.
What I do know… If my kids ask me the hard questions; I’m better prepared to equip them with the right information. Not a lame yes I did it, but don’t do it. This doesn’t jive with the mindset of the youth. The confused mind always says no. This means, with such a statement they are likely to do what makes more since to them at that time.
I do things a lot differently than most. I don’t date, I court then ask the father for courtship. Building a strong friendship is the goal for a close and strong marriage. Then will ask the father at a latter time after the courtship is under way for her engagement. May be my views are strong for most, and like I said before it is in no way easy. However, it is for me the right way.
November 18th, 2011 | 6:21 am
penta
That’s why I’ll encourage my daughters to consider getting it as part of their prenup medical workup. By itself, it doesn’t much make sense as a reason to get a vaccine of unknown effective duration in the preteen years.
I’m not sure any standard test even exists for the virus in men. It’s also not really a reason to not marry a person. Something like 40% of the entire population is carrying it and getting the virus generates only a tiny risk of cervical cancer. I also wouldn’t consider unknown duration to be a reason not to get it. Even if your body is only able to mount a 25% chance of immunity to the virus by the time you get exposed, I’d still rather have that than no immunity at all. And you don’t really know where your daughters will be after their preteen/teen years. Maybe they won’t have insurance coverage or won’t be thinking about the vaccine when they are in their mid to late twenties or will have a different doctor who will just assume they had the vaccine in their youth.
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