Hi
On Tue, 27 Feb 2001, Timmerman, Thomas wrote:
> >Here's part of an abstract from an article in the Jan. 2001 issue of the
> American Journal
> >of Sociology by Bearman and Bruckner:
> >Since 1993, in response to an organized social movement sponsored by the
> Southern Baptist Church, well over
> >two and a half million adolescents have taken public "virginity" pledges,
> in which they promise to abstain from
> >sex until marriage. This paper explores the effect of virginity pledges on
> the transition to first intercourse. On
> >one hand, we show that adolescents who pledge, controlling for all of the
> usual characteristics of adolescents
> >and their social contexts that are associated with the transition to sex,
> are much less likely than adolescents who
> >do not pledge, to have intercourse. The delay effect is substantial and
> almost impossible to erase. Taking a
> >pledge delays intercourse for a long time. On the other hand, the pledge
> effect depends on age.
This would be a very good example for a methods class, I think.
I haven't read the paper to see what "all the usual
characteristics" refers to and so cannot be sure what was
controlled. Nonetheless, one fundamental challenge is to somehow
control for qualities quite directly related to both the
likelihood of pledging and abstinence (e.g., biologial and social
urges/pressures for/against sexual activity). It would be
interesting to see how the authors controlled for such direct
factors. Or would they (or proponents of pledging) simply say
that such factors are in fact part of the treatment? An
interesting study might be to randomly assign adolescents to two
groups and see whether "encouraging" one group to pledge
abstinence leads to lower sexual activity (for the entire
group) than in the control group.
Somewhat related to this thread, I just read a chapter by Milan
describing how the most widespread treatments for substance abuse
(AA, NA, ...) lack empirical support and violate many basic
principles of effective programs (e.g., advocating helplessness
and submitting to authority rather than taking control). He
describes more effective programs designed by psychologists
(e.g., Community Intervention). There are many other cases of
apparent dissociations between practice and research (e.g., drug
education programs that increase drug use, trauma programs that
hinder reduction of negative reactions to traumatic events,
programs for delinquent adolescents that are associated with
increases in criminal behaviour, ...). Of course, these studies
have their problems as well.
Best wishes
Jim
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James M. Clark (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg 4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
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