The Abstinence Pledge & Sexual Chaos

Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | psychology

The New Yorker investigates the sociological phenomena of the abstinence-pledge in the US amongst teenagers. It’s a fascinating read and it explodes some of the assumptions one would make regarding abstinence…

Bearman and Brückner have also identified a peculiar dilemma: in some schools, if too many teens pledge, the effort basically collapses. Pledgers apparently gather strength from the sense that they are an embattled minority; once their numbers exceed thirty per cent, and proclaimed chastity becomes the norm, that special identity is lost. With such a fragile formula, it’s hard to imagine how educators can ever get it right: once the self-proclaimed virgin clique hits the thirty-one-per-cent mark, suddenly it’s Sodom and Gomorrah.

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

Here Be Treasures…

...is my little treasure trove of cool tools and great sites I've found on the Web. If you have a site you'd like to recommend, let me know.

Search

Categories

AAAAAAARCHIVES

Buy yourself something and support HBT!


(If you don't see an Amazon.co.uk searchbox, you probably have adblocking on. Use this link instead.)
...or donate via PayPal