Study on Youth Abstinence and STDs: The Bigger Picture

Rachel Sheffield / January 07, 2011

A recent study hit the news waves earlier this week proclaiming that a statistically significant portion of young adults who say they are sexually abstinent are diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD). According to the study, conducted at Emory University, 10 percent of youth that reported no sexual intercourse in the last 12 months tested positive for an STD, with 60 percent of that 10 percent saying they had never had sex in their lives.

The proposed solution: require that all youth—even those who report being abstinent—be tested for STDs. However, this “band-aid” type—not to mention controversial—recommendation is not a real answer to the problem of sexual activity taking place among the nation’s youth today.

The authors of the current study suggest that the discrepancy in answers is likely due to a variety of factors: youth contracting an STD prior to the 12 months the study measured, simple testing error, youth contracting an STD from other types of sexual behavior, or participants simply not telling the truth about being abstinent. (more…)