Teens who abstain from sex until at
least age 18 are less likely to be expelled or drop out of high
school and are more than twice as likely to complete college when
compared to teens who do not abstain from sexual activity.
According to data
gathered from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth),
teens that practice sexual abstinence are less likely to be expelled
or drop out of high school and are more likely to graduate from
college, even after controlling for social background variables.
This remains true even when excluding teenagers who give birth and
controlling for the teens' own educational expectations. Teens who
became sexually active before the age of 18 were almost 3 times more
likely to be expelled from school than were teens who remained
virgins while in high school (9.9% vs. 3.5%). In addition, 21% of
teens who began sexual activity before the age of 18 dropped out of
school before graduating high school. The drop out rate of teens who
remained virgins at least until age 18 was substantially lower at
8.6%. While sexually active teens who use contraception do better
academically than sexually-active non-contraceptive users, abstinent
teens still perform best academically.1
1Teenage
Sexual Abstinence and Academic Achievement, Paper presented at
9th Annual Abstinence Clearinghouse Conference, August 2005.
