Getting Laid Not Depressing

One of the big ticket lies that government sponsored abstinence-only sex education is required to sell us is the idea that having sex before you are married will lead to mental health problems, specifically depression.

And while its certainly true that sex can make life more complicated, and depending on the sex, more depressing, it can also make life more fun, beautiful, interesting and engaging. And I think most sexual health educators would agree that there's a balance, and that the benefits usually outweigh the drawbacks in the final tally.

So it was nice to read about a recent study out of the University of Minnesota that examined depression following first sexual intercourse. From the university's release:

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Ann Meier, University of Minnesota assistant professor of sociology, studied 8,563 seventh- through 12th-graders over an 18-month period, measuring for depression and low self-esteem. Meier compared the mental health of teens who didn't have sex to teens who were virgins at the beginning of the study, but who lost their virginity during the 18-month period.

She found that while the majority of teens did not experience depression as a result of first-time sex, some did -- those being the youngest teens (girls who had sex before age 15 and boys who had sex before 14) and whose relationship was not emotionally close and dissolved after sex. Girls in this group were particularly vulnerable to depression.

While these results aren't like to surprise many (except those who actually believe everything they hear in abstinence-only class) the study remains important both for the empirical evidence it brings to a topic lacking in empirical evidence, and for the way it complicates the topic by describing the role of sex in the lives of teens as it actually exists, in all its confusing glory.