Young girls who are sexually active are far more likely to suffer from depression than those who remain virgins, according to a controversial new study.

Research which appeared recently in the Journal of Health Economics has found that young girls who are sexually active often experience feelings of guilt, low self-esteem, regret and shame, and are far more likely to suffer from depression than those who remain chaste.

After conducting a study of more than 14,000 US teens aged between 14 and 17, using data from the U.S. government funded National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, researchers said the feelings could be directly ascribed to sexual activity, rather than outside influences. Furthermore, researchers also found that the mental health of boys in the same age group did not correlate with sexually active.

The study found that having sex doubled the chances of girls becoming depressed, with 19 percent of those who had sex exhibiting symptoms of depression, compared with 9.2 percent who had abstained.

The conclusion the study reached was that “sexually active female adolescents are at increased risk of exhibiting the symptoms of depression relative to their counterparts who are not sexually active.”

Christian Medical Fellowship chairman Dr Trevor Stammers said the study showed:

[most girls] retrospectively showed regret about early intercourse.

It also shows as closely as we have been able to show so far that there is a genuine link between increased risk of depression and adolescent females engaging in sex

My experience is that, for girls, depression, regret and shame are very common.

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Posted by Jonathan in Anthropology, Psychology

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