CDC.gov
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have specific fact sheets for every STD. If you want to learn more about the signs, symptoms, and why abstaining from sexual activity is the best form of prevention, start here.
Why Wait?
If you want to remind yourself of reasons to be abstinent, review this list of reasons people your age give for WHY they decided to be wait (or stop):
- fear of parental disapproval
- pregnancy, STDs and getting caught
- the perception that most students do not have sex (which is actually true!)
- most of a youth’s friends do not have sex
- sex is not right for a person the respondent’s age
- a lack of desire to have sex
- a decision to wait until marriage
- a desire to not ruin a friendship by becoming sexually involved
- focusing on other goals in life, like sports, a hobby, studies, college
- a perceived advantage to waiting taught by parents or learned at school
- for some, religious motivation (most major religions teach abstinence until marriage)
Teen Decision Review Sheet
If you want to review the information you learned from Teen Decision, here is a worksheet to help you out!
Good Books
- How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk by John Van Epp, PhD
- Hooked by Dr. Joe McIlhaney and Dr. Freda Bush
- The Case for Marriage by Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher
- Dateable: Are You? Are They? by Justin Lookadoo & Hayley DiMarco (religious content)
- Don’t Take Love Lying Down by Brad Henning (just for guys)
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey (about all aspects of life
- Unprotected by Dr. Miriam Grossman
- Unhooked by Laura Sessions Stepp