Romantic sex 'has no effect on schoolwork'

Teenagers who have sex in committed relationships do no worse at school than those who stay virgins, American researchers have discovered.

Sex in relationships is largely harmless to academic studies but can have an adverse effect on students who are not romantically involved.

Researchers at the University of California Davis and the University of Minnesota looked at teenage experiences of studying and sex. While previous studies found a negative impact on schooling from having sex, they argued that no research looked at the context in which teenagers sleep together.

They followed how well youngsters performed at high school, whether they wanted to go to university and their expectations of succeeding.

They also examined problems in school, whether the students ever skipped school and for how long, whether they had been suspended or expelled and whether they dropped out.

The data was collected from more than 90,000 teenagers. Results showed that, among teenagers who were similar in all other respects, those who had sex outside a relationship were more likely to experience problems at school, be suspended or expelled, were less likely to expect to go to university and had lower grades than those in relationships.