Is Premarital Abstinence Making a Comeback?

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Well, if you look at the study that’s at the bottom of the trend piece, it doesn’t really say anything about premarital abstinence.

What they’re looking at, I think, is whether as a young adult people were more likely to be sexually inactive as someone who is now age 20-24, or as someone born in the 60s. What they find is that 6% of people from the 60s were sexually inactive after age 18 when they were in the 20-24 age group vs. 15% of those people today.

That’s a big jump. But also remember that marriage rates are way down and the age of marriage is up. So if you segment the population into people who wait until marriage and people who don’t, in the early generation a much larger proportion of the wait-til-marriage group would have been married when they were 20-24. While we can see that the sexually active/inactive split has shifted towards the inactive group we don’t know how the wait/don’t wait split has shifted.

That’s not to say that abstinence before marriage isn’t rising, but the study doesn’t address that question.
 
The comment of Claire McAuthor in the article summarises my opinion on the issue. Today’s youths (not all anyway ) have a different mentality towards chastity, like it is some old fashioned concept. More worrying is the laxity of parents in that regard. I would not want to hastily conclude there is a come back to premarital abstinence from a few exceptions. (A very worrying trend)
 
carefullytread said:
Well, if you look at the study that’s at the bottom of the trend piece, it doesn’t really say anything about premarital abstinence.

What they’re looking at, I think, is whether as a young adult people were more likely to be sexually inactive as someone who is now age 20-24, or as someone born in the 60s. What they find is that 6% of people from the 60s were sexually inactive after age 18 when they were in the 20-24 age group vs. 15% of those people today.

That’s a big jump. But also remember that marriage rates are way down and the age of marriage is up. So if you segment the population into people who wait until marriage and people who don’t, in the early generation a much larger proportion of the wait-til-marriage group would have been married when they were 20-24. While we can see that the sexually active/inactive split has shifted towards the inactive group we don’t know how the wait/don’t wait split has shifted.

That’s not to say that abstinence before marriage isn’t rising, but the study doesn’t address that question.
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The second paragraph of your post confused me.

Your first statement mentioned people who were born in the 60s versus people who are in their 20s today.

In the second statement, you then contrasted the sexual activity of people in the 60s who were older than age 18 and the people in their 20s today.

You seem to be mentioning two different groups. People who were born in the 60s during the 60s were babies and not above age 18.
 
Sarcelle said:
The second paragraph of your post confused me. You first mentioned people who were born in the 60s versus people who are in their 20s today. You then contrasted the sexual activity of people in the 60s who were older than age 18 and the people in their 20s today.

You seem to be mentioning two different groups. People who were born in the 60s during the 60s were babies and not above age 18.
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Yeah, sorry, it’s a bit hard to describe what the paper is studying.

They want to ask are young adults more likely to be abstaining as young adults now or in the 80s?

On date X, find people who are aged 20-24 on date X and ask them “Have you had sex since the age of 18?” One group is the with X == today, i.e. you go out and survey some young adults right now. The other group is with X == 1980-something, so people who were age 20-24 in the 80s and hence were born in the 60s.
 
I didn’t think Premarital Abstinence was a choice. Sex before marriage was always a sin!
Ask any priest. :shrug:
 
truetofaith said:
I didn’t think Premarital Abstinence was a choice. Sex before marriage was always a sin!
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sex outside marriage is still always a sin
(although i think the op is not contesting it, but is only making a comparison from some study between the attitude of youths from 2 different generations on the subject)
 
carefullytread said:
Yeah, sorry, it’s a bit hard to describe what the paper is studying.

They want to ask are young adults more likely to be abstaining as young adults now or in the 80s?

On date X, find people who are aged 20-24 on date X and ask them “Have you had sex since the age of 18?” One group is the with X == today, i.e. you go out and survey some young adults right now. The other group is with X == 1980-something, so people who were age 20-24 in the 80s and hence were born in the 60s.
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Oh okay.

Thank you for clarifying.
 
I was intrigued by this part:

“Over at Verily magazine Claire McArthur writes about her decision at the age of 15 to abstain fromI sex until marriage. In her piece, “The Hardest Thing About Not Having Sex Before Marriage Wasn’t What I Expected,” she focuses on the judgments people made about her commitment. “What astonished me was how unwilling others were to accept that I had made an informed choice simply because it was different from what they were used to. In an age when choice is supposedly supreme, my choice didn’t fit with the cultural narrative, and so it wasn’t viewed as valid.” McArthur describes being both patronized and pitied.”

I guess for her the hardest thing was not the abstinence but the judgments others made about her because of it.
 
JimG said:
I was intrigued by this part:

“Over at Verily magazine Claire McArthur writes about her decision at the age of 15 to abstain fromI sex until marriage. In her piece, “The Hardest Thing About Not Having Sex Before Marriage Wasn’t What I Expected,” she focuses on the judgments people made about her commitment. “What astonished me was how unwilling others were to accept that I had made an informed choice simply because it was different from what they were used to. In an age when choice is supposedly supreme, my choice didn’t fit with the cultural narrative, and so it wasn’t viewed as valid.” McArthur describes being both patronized and pitied.”

I guess for her the hardest thing was not the abstinence but the judgments others made about her because of it.
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Replace “not having sex” with being “transgender” or, a few years ago, “gay”. It reads almost the same and is tragic in either case. Human judgement can be a terrible thing when you don’t fit the “cultural narrative”.
 
carefullytread said:
Replace “not having sex” with being “transgender” or, a few years ago, “gay”. It reads almost the same and is tragic in either case. Human judgement can be a terrible thing when you don’t fit the “cultural narrative”.
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By transgender and gay you are bringing in a whole big issue all together. Premarital abstinence is a good thing being frowned upon by the popular culture. Trans and gay are bad things frowned up explicitly by the bible. (I can no longer tell where to place them in the popular culture)
 
I can’t imagine another person passing judgement because of a private decision that doesn’t happen to agree with their own stance concerning wether or not to be sexually active. I also believe that those who chose to be celibate should not judge those who are are not. I’m speaking of adults who have the legal and mature mindset to understand the concept of “consent”. As the old saying goes, to each their own, especially in deeply personal matters.🤷
 
kozlosap said:
I can’t imagine another person passing judgement because of a private decision that doesn’t happen to agree with their own stance concerning wether or not to be sexually active. I also believe that those who chose to be celibate should not judge those who are are not. I’m speaking of adults who have the legal and mature mindset to understand the concept of “consent”. As the old saying goes, to each their own, especially in deeply personal matters.🤷
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We’re not talking rights here …we’re talking SIN.
 
kozlosap said:
I can’t imagine another person passing judgement because of a private decision that doesn’t happen to agree with their own stance concerning wether or not to be sexually active. I also believe that those who chose to be celibate should not judge those who are are not. I’m speaking of adults who have the legal and mature mindset to understand the concept of “consent”. As the old saying goes, to each their own, especially in deeply personal matters.🤷
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What does it mean to “judge” in this context? Do you mean that personal decisions of a mature adult on a private matter (in particular, the question of sexual relations) are beyond moral assessment? Is sin not possible when making such decisions?
 
If anyone thinks abstinence of any kind is possible of being even remotely popular again, take a look around at the world today, no other time is sex so glorified and encouraged, even to the very young, even cartoons have been sexualized to promote this type of behavior, in short, things generally do not get better when the worlds morality goes down the drain.

Although I have noticed there is a big difference between what is more acceptable in regards to sexual activity these days, if a single or divorced female in her mid 40s dates and has sex, no one really thinks anything of it, but if a 19yr old does the same thing, more people will think it is wrong, Im assuming the logic is, the younger person is likely not in a position to care for and raise a child if she became pregnant.
 
Then the Ten Commandments have to be revised…call Pope Francis & tell him we have a new set of rules! :rolleyes:
 
SusanneT said:
Sadly I doubt that it is making a comeback in the general population but I do think that among devout young Christians the importance of purity before marriage is increasingly appreciated and the resolve to wait is spreading.
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I think it is making a comeback (if you include celibacy) but not sure if it’s a good thing. The fear of pregnancy and STDs is probably a driving force. Also, there are a lot of ways one can entertain oneself without seeing a relationship. Between smart phones, video games, and a vast array of hobbies & careers it wouldn’t surprise me if we see a generation with lower interest in sex, either martial or otherwise.

I suspect we will go to a weaker version of what Japan is experiencing in men and women avoiding relationships.
 
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