Washington (SmartAboutHealth) - According to a new study, a virginity pledge by a teen usually turns out to be nothing but a fake promise.

A virginity pledge is something that is given orally or in writing by a teen to promise not to have sex before marriage.

What a new study has found though is that often, these turn out to be nothing but fake promises.

Researchers for the study focused on federal data and were led by Janet Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

They discovered that the number of teens who had intercourse before marriage was the same, over 50%, even if they had given the virginity pledge.

On top of that, those who had intercourse after giving the pledge were 10% less likely to use protection such as condoms compared to teens who did not make the pledge.

This means that those who give the pledge are actually put at a higher risk of STDs and unwanted pregnancies due to the fact that they do not get the same level of education.

The study has been published in the journal Pediatrics.