A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that virginal teens rate consistently better in nearly all health-related behaviors than their sexually active peers.

According to an article appearing in the National Catholic Register, Glenn T. Stanton, author and social science researcher at Focus on the Family, the CDC’s new study is particularly interesting because it goes beyond just measuring sexual activity but also examines a variety of safety and health behaviors as well. These include everything from binge drinking and pot smoking to seat belt and tanning bed use.

The report examined three categories of students: virginal, heterosexually active (OSA) and same-sex or bi-sex sexually active (SS/BA). It’s two major conclusions are:

• The virginal students rate significantly and consistently better in nearly all health-related behaviors than their sexually active peers. They do so by remarkably stunning measures.

• Teens who have sexual contact with the same or both sexes have remarkably lower percentages of healthy behaviors overall than their heterosexually active peers.

However, just how stunning a difference exists between virginal and sexually active teens is best seen when looking at the particular categories.

For instance, OSA teens are 337 percent more likely to binge drink than their virginal peers. SS/BA teens are 375 percent more likely to do so than virginal teens.

OSA teens are 336 percent more likely to use marijuana than their virginal peers while SS/BA teens are 483 percent more likely to do so than non-sexually active teens.

OSA teens are 500 percent more likely to have ever injected a non-prescription drug than their virginal peers. SS/BA teens are 2,333 percent more likely to have done so.

Dating violence is also more prevalent among sexually active teens who are 260 percent more likely to experience it (OSA) and 683 percent more likely (SS/BA) than their virginal peers.

Among teens who report feeling sad or helpless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row to the extent that they stopped doing some of their normal activities, OSA teens were 48 percent more likely and SS/BA teens were 181 percent more likely to experience this kind of depression than virginal youth.

Teens who embrace purity also scored higher in other areas of general health such as eating breakfast daily (24% of OSA teens are less likely; 48% of SS/BA teens are less likely). Pure teens also tend to get eight hours of sleep a night (OSA teens are 21% less likely and SS/BA teens are 34% less likely).

Virginal teens were even more likely to use seat-belts than their sexually active peers (OSA were 143% less likely and SS/BA teens were 317% less likely).

It’s difficult to determine from this report just how these measures are related to one another – such as how sexual activity drives increases in other negative health behaviors - but the mere fact that the CDC measured all of these health behaviors by sexual activity and distributed it to health professionals around the world in a major report certainly indicates their relationship is of significant interest to health-care workers, Stanton says.

“These findings should be very concerning to all parents and professionals concerned with our teens’ general health and well-being. The sexual choices and values our young people hold have real-life consequences far beyond sexuality itself. Thus, there are indeed compelling reasons to encourage teens to choose not to be sexually engaged with peers of the opposite or same-sex,” he writes.

“Our children should know there’s very compelling scientific evidence on so many levels showing how saving the precious gift of their sexuality for the safe harbor of marriage is not about old-time moralism or unhealthy sexual repression. Just the opposite is true. Chastity is related to so many substantial measures of human health and well-being that it should be strongly appreciated by parents, health and education professionals as one of the most important health boosting factors for our nation’s young adults.”

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