In case anyone is still reading this, I've had time to skim the article.
Sample is 90,000 in-class surveys in 140 schools followed up by 20,745
in-home
interviews followed up by 14,787 additional interviews.
As for the validity of the self-reports:
"The adolescent in-home interview was conducted using audio-CASI technology
for all sensitive health status and
health risk behavior questions. Adolescents listened to questions through
earphones and directly entered their
responses into a laptop computer, thereby eliminating any potential for
interviewer or parental effects on their
responses. ACASI technology has been shown to reduce response bias
associated with sensitive questions and
non-normative behavioral items (Turner et al, 1998)."
Turner, C. F., L. Ku, M. Rogers, L. D. Lindberg, J. H. Pleck, and F. L.
Sonenstein. 1998. "Adolescent Sexual
Behavior, Drug Use, and Violence: Increased Reporting With Computer Survey
Technology." Science
280(May):867-68.
As for the correlation/confounding between pledging and religiosity,
family relationships, social ties, etc.:
"Pledgers' relative risk of sexual initiation is estimated to be 34 % lower
than
non-pledgers, even after controlling for a wide range of personal
characteristics,
religiosity, and other protective factors."
A little fuel for the fire:
"Critics of the pledge movement suggest that pledgers who break their
promise and experience sexual
intercourse will suffer negative psychological consequences. To assess this
criticism, we consider two scales
that measure psychological well-being, the self-esteem scale used in the
transition models above, and an 11-item
depression scale. For all groups except for black males, teens who had first
intercourse experience a loss of
self-esteem compared to those who remained virgins (results not shown;
tables available from the authors).
Female pledgers experience an increase in self-esteem between waves, and the
interaction effect between
pledging and having intercourse is not significant for any group. We found
no indication that changes in self-esteem
associated with intercourse depend on the timing of intercourse or on age at
the time of the first wave
interview. Hence, pledgers do not lose more self-esteem when they break
their promises then others. The same
obtains when using the depression scale, and in a multivariate model
controlling for relationship with parents,
religiosity, school integration, academic orientation, network position, and
romantic involvement. Thus,
pledging has no negative consequences in terms of psychological well-being,
even for teenagers who break their
promises."
TT
============================================
Thomas A. Timmerman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Psychology Department
Austin Peay State University
Clarksville, TN 37044
931-221-1248
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
============================================
