Teens often change sex, virginity claims

BOSTON, May 9 (UPI) -- U.S. middle and high school students have selective memory when taking surveys about their sexual activity and pledges of sexual abstinence, a study says.

A Harvard University study of data from the same 13,000 students in grades 7-12 found many gave one answer about their sexual activity in the first survey only to change it in later questioning.

Thirteen percent of students in the first survey reported taking a virginity pledge, but more than half of that group denied taking such a pledge in the second survey.

About one-third of students in the first survey said they had engaged in sex, but 10 percent of that group denied being sexually active in subsequent questioning.

As for why so many students changed their stories, "we can't really get inside their heads and know what they're thinking," author Janet Rosenbaum told The New York Times.

The study, published in The American Journal of Public Health, was based on data compiled by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.