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I knew it. I knew having intimate, satisfying sex with a great partner was going to lead me to...kill myself?
Or so The Heritage Foundation says. Its an old article, but it proves a point: some abstinence-only organizations will manipulate facts (and thus nullify them) to convince the public that they are right. Its to no suprise that an abstinence-only until marriage used this statistic in a grant proposal for federal funds. Take a look at what THF wrote:
The study survey asked whether or not students have ever had "sexual intercourse." For different people, this definition could mean different things, making the results all the more unreliable. Not to metion the fact that you could have had "sexualy intercourse" last night or five years ago. The survey went on to ask "how often, in the past week, did you feel depressed?" There were four possible answers: never or rarely; sometimes; a lot of the time; or most of/ all of the time. Talk about in-depth. For all we know, the number of respodents who answered no to sexually active could have been happy...that day, anyway."When compared to teens who are not sexually active, teenage boys and girls who are sexually active are significantly less likely to be happy and more likely to feel depessed.
"When compared to teens who are not sexually active, teenage boys and girls who are sexually active are significantly more likely to attempt suicide."
Take a look at the age group. 14-17 year olds seem to go through stages of happy and depressed all of the time...I broke up with my boyfriend...I have no friends...I didnt get into college...pretty generic reasons, but you get the picture--its a rollercoaster of emotions during this time.
If I were to take the survey, I would have answered yes to sexual intercourse and, eh, sometimes to the depression part. Its a fact of life--we have emotions. Too bad they would have labeled me as more likely to be depressed and committ suicide--and doesn't it seem backwards? Wouldn't it make more sense to believe someone had sex because they were depressed than become depressed because they had sex? And even if that we the case, had they been prepared (in a comprehensive sex ed program), they might not have anything to be depressed about. What do you think?
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Ugh.... one of the many many lovely/loony things you'll find from The Heritage Foundation. Thanks for the heads up, drs.
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AFY_Joe
| 1/24/09 04:16 PM
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AFY_Joe
| 1/24/09 04:16 PM
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by Anatic09