Now this is the kind of news we wanna get on a Friday! According to a new study, men who remain virgins until marriage are more likely to struggle with their sex lives. So yep – enjoying casual dating and booty calls till you finally decide to tie the knot? Probably a good idea.

Sarah Diefendorf, a sociology doctoral candidate at the University of Washington in Seattle, studied a group of men in a group called The River, who all pledged abstinence until marriage. Her research seems to show that this kind of pledge can often lead to poor sex lives during marriage, because the men felt like they had no one to talk to about this new (and highly important) aspect of their love life.

Via The Daily Mail:

Ms. Diefendorf said [that guys who make virginity pledges] “spend the first 20-something years of their lives being told that sex is wrong.  They’re expected to make this transition from the beastly to the sacred, but they don’t really have the tools to be able to do that effectively.”

She goes on to explain that a reason these men have a difficult time having healthy sex lives is because although they’ve had frank conversations about temptation and masturbation with their church groups before they get married, they’re left hanging without any support once they walk down the aisle. “Post-marriage, the church teaches: keep it in the dark,” says Ms. Diefendorf. “Most of the men said they felt discussing their sex lives was inappropriate and disrespectful to their wives.”

To top it all off, inexperience and likely nervousness make these men feel like they can’t even have honest discussions about sex with their OWN WIVES. Many of the men told Sarah they struggled with extra-marital desires and pornography.

Obviously, the number one casual dating site on the web is going to advocate for healthy, fun, casual sex experiences before settling down. But this research – in which actual men have experienced a sex-less young adulthood, and are struggling because of it? We think this puts the nail in the coffin: casual sex is a good thing.