Sunday, January 10, 2010

Conservative Teenagers Having Sex

New study suggests, U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs have higher rate of teenagers giving birth.

The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) are stupid enough to frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn’t successfully discouraging them from doing each other, pregnancy and birth rates rise.

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A researcher speculated on the most likely reason: "Dumb ass communities are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself."image

Data was compiled from various data sets. The religiosity information came from a sample of nearly 36,000 participants who were part of the U.S. Religious Landscapes Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted in 2007, while the teen birth and abortion statistics came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For religiosity, the researchers averaged the percentage of respondents who agreed with conservative responses to eight statements, including: ”There is only one way to interpret the teachings of my religion," and ”Scripture should be taken literally, word for word."

Top 10 states with highest teen birth rates: Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Georgia

Top 10 most conservatively religious states: Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Utah, North Carolina,  Alabama, South Carolina

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Cause and effect?

Adamczyk says the idea that anti-contraception principles could be behind the link is controversial, as studies on the topic have varied results. "The idea is that in the heat of the moment, a young woman who has said, ‘I’m going to be a virgin on my wedding night,’ is with her boyfriend and she says ‘Let’s just do it.’ And since they didn’t plan it, nobody has a condom. And so it increases their chances of a pregnancy," Adamczyk said.

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"In the south, there is a higher rate of marriage of teenagers. And one possible explanation is just that in the southern states, which are also more religious, people just get married earlier and have planned pregnancies and those have perfectly good outcomes," Strayhorn said. He added that he doesn’t think the earlier marriage idea explains the religion-birth link.

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[Via http://ianspenser.wordpress.com]

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