around 2,000 years ago, the single report. And that was the basis for a world religion.
But right now as Christians around the world are getting ready to celebrate what happened in Bethlehem, along comes a new report: 45 women report that they have become pregnant without ever having sex.
Also Norwegian women talk about virgin births. But in the Norwegian sex surveys are so obvious error reporting weeded out before the results are published.
Those who claim to virginity intact when they give birth, are on average two years younger than other mothers in the study. (Photo: Colourbox)
8000 Women
It is a study about the health of American teens have come up with the surprising figures.
Nearly 8,000 women were interviewed confidentially and repeatedly, through 14 years. Last time they were between 24 and 32 years old.
Of those interviewed had been pregnant since 5340. 45 of these women again – 0.8 percent – and also announced they had been virgins at the time they became pregnant. They had not used any form of artificial insemination.
– first we thought we had made a programming error, says Amy Herring, a professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina.
But it was not the fault lay with the researchers. When they went through the answers, it appeared that time that these women reported having had sexual intercourse, was so late that it meant that they had given birth to her first child before they had sex.
– We did not ask specifically if they had born a virgin. They answered one series questions about pregnancy and another series of sexual encounters, explains Herring.
Errors and morality
Amy Herring believes that some of the women who tell of the virgin birth, will make a good impression and live up to moral standards. (Photo: University of North Carolina)
– A lot of it is probably because they did not remember correctly, or that they somehow have misunderstood the question.
– For example, a study of health surveys in Africa that some women who get asked when they had sex the first time, enter the first time they had sexual intercourse with her husband, instead of entering the time of the sexual debut, says Amy Herring to forskning.no.
same time, it appears that many of the alleged American virgins particularly clear views on sexual morality.
One third of women reporting pregnancy without sex, has promised sexual abstinence until marriage. There are twice as many as among those women who do not let there be any doubt as to how they have been pregnant.
Virginal fathers
parents of the women who reported virgin births, also spoke less about sex and contraception with their children.
– This makes me believe that some women would give a good idea and adapt to the moralske standards around the. The fact that some women reported the same way more than once during the investigation supports the hypothesis, commenting Herring.
She emphasizes that it not only concerns women. In the data, there are also some father who has never had sexual intercourse with either her mother or anyone else.
virgin birth was reported 2,000 years ago, is celebrated next week. Virgin births are reported in our days, meeting, the approved as mere errors of the interviewees. (Illustration: Colourbox)
– In our case we used a very large health study – Add Health, which stands for The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. It was to capture a large number of attitudes and experiences, not just about sex and pregnancy.
questions about sex and pregnancy were in different parts of the questionnaire. Because it is so expensive to conduct a study that is representative of the population, the researchers will try to include as many questions as they can, to maximize the value and the information they receive, according to Herring.
An alternative would be to set short series of questions, closer together, fewer people, to reduce such errors.
– But then we might not have been a choice that allows us to transfer the results to the entire population, says Amy Herring.
Trying to remove error reporting
Reports of virgin births in recent times, is not a local U.S. phenomenon.
Also in the Norwegian sex surveys tell women that they have become pregnant and have first had sexual intercourse afterwards.
But there are virgin births weeded out of the final results, says Bente Træen. She has worked with sex surveys since 1988, she is now a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo.
– Before we analyze the data, we attack them and find inconsistencies. Because we do not believe in the virgin birth, there is an inconsistency, she says.
If the answer is given in a survey that goes over time, researchers can return to the previous questionnaire or interview to try to see what is likely.
– I’ve had people say that they have debuted, and then the next time they say that they have never had. You make an assessment and look at what is likely, says Træen.
Will any answer honestly
She emphasizes that when someone first set up a survey, so they respond happily as honest as they can.
– At the same time we know that there are systematic over-and under-reporting in relation to what is socially desirable. Often there are gender differences.
– Men will count the partners they have had even though they may not have had vaginal intercourse. Women will think that they have not had sexual intercourse, there has not been a partner, she says, and compares with questions about alcohol.
which provides researchers systematically underreported. In return, the under-reporting the same from study to study, so the tendency is still evident.
Another source of error comes when such investigations carried out by schoolchildren receive a questionnaire in the classroom.
– With youth can be an advantage, because then you get more responses. But then we also find that the guys in the back row decides that “now we exaggerate,” and then they agreed to check on everything. So we end up with someone that has been abused and had 200 partners – they take it out completely, says Bente Træen.
Fill out alone
What is sex, and who has had it? Not always as simple questions, says Bente Træen. (Photo: Bjørn-Kåre Iversen, University of Tromsø)
– Are you sitting with your partner, we can get an under-reporting of eg escapade. It’s no fun to lie if you do not have anyone to show it to.
– But those times when someone in a classroom have giggled to extreme responses, so they make up such a small percentage that it does not make any difference to average the results if you take them out, says Træen.
In connection with the sexual habits studies, in 1992, it was also examined whether the results were influenced by the fact that not everyone will participate.
Some of those who responded were followed up afterwards. It turned out that those who participated in the survey had sexual habits in line with the group that showed up.
Bill Clinton syndrome
One source of error is that not everyone has the same definition of what constitutes sex. Bill Clinton, for example, with its infamous cigar and the statement “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
– The man has done important work on sexual habits research, smiles Bente Træen.
– He illustrates very well under-reporting. A man would normally be considered Lewinsky as a partner, while a woman would have thought that there had sexual intercourse, says Træen and believes that researchers must define clearly what they ask for when talking about sex.
– There is a criticism that we got for the first sexual surveys, we think too heterosexual. The criticism was probably entirely justified, for we have become better at defining what we mean by “sex” or “sex”, precisely in order to take into account that not everyone is heterosexual, says Bente Træen.
References:
Amy H Herring, Samantha M Attard, Penny Gordon-Larsen, William H Joyner, Carolyn T Halpern, Like a virgin (mother) analysis of data from a longitudinal, representative U.S. population sample survey, BMJ 2013 347 , doi: 10.1136/bmj.f7102
Bente Træen, Hein Stigum, Per Magnus, Report of sexual surveys in 1987, 1992.1997 and 2002, National Institute
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