I will be the first to admit it: I am a celebrity gossip reader. It is a vice, but one that I have yet to kick. At any given moment, I can tell you which celebrities are on the “bump watch” and who is getting married, getting divorced or getting sued. A disgusting habit, I know, especially when some mornings I click on my gossip links BEFORE clicking on my world news links. Lately, though, I have noticed a rising trend amongst the celebrity youth: promise rings. No, not a promise ring from a fellow celebrity boyfriend or girlfriend, but promise rings to abstain from sex until marriage. The Jonas Brothers, Selena Gomez and even one of the teenagers highlighted in Trading Spouses have all taken part in this trend. Turns out, these celebrities might be on to something as a recent study from the RAND Corporation shows that young adults who make a pledge to abstain from sex until marriage may actually delay their starting to have sex.
In the study, the results showed that those young adults who vowed to remain virgins until they were married were more likely to stay sex-free during the three years of the study in comparison to the young adults who did not make the vow but had other similar qualities. The head of the research team, RAND psychologist Steven Martino, states, “These findings do not suggest that virginity pledges should be a substitute for comprehensive sexual education programs, or that they will work for all kinds of kids. But virginity pledges may be appropriate as one component of an overall sex education effort.” Many studies have researched what impact, if any, these virginity pledges have made, but this study was a bit different in that researchers looked for key differences in those youths who pledged versus those who chose not to pledge. These differences included parenting styles, friendships and religion. This information was valuable to the researchers because it gave them a baseline to compare similar youths.
Close to 1,500 adolescent virgins between the ages of 12 and 17 participated in the study in 2001 with follow-ups done one year later and then three years later. Approximately 25% of the participants responded that they had made a pledge to abstain from sex until marriage. Over 40% of the participants who chose not to make the virginity pledge but had similar lifestyles to those who did started having sex within the three year study period, compared to 34% of those adolescents who had made the pledge. Martino adds, “Making a pledge to remain a virgin until married may provide extra motivation to adolescents who want to delay becoming sexually active. The act of pledging may create some social pressure or social support that helps them to follow through with their clearly stated public intention. Waiting until you are older to have sex is good for teens from a health standpoint. There are lots of reasons for more kids to wait until they are older. Virginity pledges must be made freely for them to work. If young people are coerced or are unduly influenced by peer pressure, virginity pledges are not likely to have a positive effect.”
译文:
童贞誓约
我会毫不犹豫地承认：我喜欢看明星的绯闻。这是恶习，但我却欲罢不能。只要一有机会，我就会告诉你哪些名人突然“曝光”，那些要结婚，那些被起诉。我知道这是一个很不好的习惯。尤其是在早晨，我还关注我自己身边的事，就已经关注八卦新闻去了。然而，最近发现，在年轻名人之间有一个现象很普遍：承诺戒指。它不是这些艺人的恋人所送的，而是一枚禁止婚前性行为的承诺戒指。约拿兄弟、萨利那.格美丝甚至在《交易配偶》中很有名的青年都加入到这一行列当中来了。正如兰德公司的调查显示：正在采取此措施——拒绝婚前性行为的年轻艺人很有可能会推迟他们的性行为。
研究结果表明：在调查的三年时间里，那些发誓在婚前保持处子身的年轻明星，与那些特质相似却没许下承诺的明星相比，他们更可能保持贞操。这一调查的策划人——兰德公司的心理学家史蒂文.马蹄诺说道：“这些调查结果并非意味着童贞誓约应该取代综合性的性知识教育，也不意味着它们会对各种各样的年轻人都有效。然而，这次调查的一个细微的不同之处在于：研究人员在立下童贞誓约和没立下童贞誓约的年轻人之间找寻关键的不同点。这些不同之处包括父母的教育方式、友谊和宗教。对于研究人员来说，这些信息很有价值，因为它为研究人员将类似的年轻明星做对比提供基础。
将近1500名12至17岁的处男处女参加这项2001年的调查。一年后，人数猛增；三年后，人数再次增加。大约25%的参与者说到他们已经立下了童贞誓约。超过40%的参与者没有立下誓约，与37%已经立下童贞誓约的人相比，虽然生活方式相似，但他们在三年的调查期间内就发生了性行为。马蹄诺补充道：“对于那些不想太快发生性行为的人来说，立下童贞誓约可以为他们提供额外的动力。这样做可以产生一些社会压力或者得到社会的支持，这些都有助于促使那些备受公众瞩目的年轻明星将誓约进行到底。更多的年轻人，当他们进一步成长时，还有许多的道理等待他们去学。但是，立童贞誓约必须遵循自愿原则。如果年轻人勉强这么做，或者是在同龄人的压力下才立下誓约，那么童贞誓约是不会有效的。