Monogamy a Good Thing?

A lot of news about abstinence, sex and monogamy lately, mostly due to a Center for Disease Control report that came out earlier this month reporting that abstinence is actually up.

Yep… you read that right. Today, more kids are waiting to engage in sexual activity.

You can read more about this interesting changing trend- I wrote an entire Youth Culture Window article on the subject, summarizing and linking the report (and others). If you haven’t seen that you’ll wanna be sure and take a peek: Abstinence is Up– But Consequences Not Down.

Pay careful attention to the end of the article, because I implore parents once again, “Have ongoing talks with our kids about sex.” Ongoing conversations is a principle I talk about frequently in my book coming out at the end of this week, Candid Confessions of an Imperfect Parent (Pre-order a signed copy of this book from Jonathan now).

I’ve been seeing some other people chiming in on the subject as well. I found this particular New York Times Opinion page article interesting, Why Monogamy Matters. Here, the author mentions the same report, but also talks about some interesting findings– such as those noted by Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, in their recent book, “Premarital Sex in America.” According to their research, the more monogamous the woman is, the “happier” she is.

I quote:

Among the young people Regnerus and Uecker studied, the happiest women were those with a current sexual partner and only one or two partners in their lifetime. Virgins were almost as happy, though not quite, and then a young woman’s likelihood of depression rose steadily as her number of partners climbed and the present stability of her sex life diminished.

You don’t see that on an episode of Two and a Half Men.