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.

Printed with permission from the Concerned Parents Report.