Pledges succeed in helping teens abstain from sex
Like many parents, Mary Donaldson dreaded having “the talk” with her teenage daughter, Brooke.
That’s why Donaldson turned to the True Love Waits program at Tulip Grove Baptist Church in Old Hickory. The program promotes abstinence before marriage and urges parents to talk with their kids about sex.
. . . Her daughter made a purity pledge three years ago.
Those pledges can be surprisingly effective, according to a new study from the RAND Corp. Students ages 12 to 17 who made purity pledges were 21 percent less likely to have sex within three years of making a pledge than were teens who wanted to avoid sex before marriage but did not make a pledge, according to RAND’s research, published online by the Journal of Adolescent Health.