Well, LDS dating guidelines are pretty broad. It kinda boils down to:
-- No premarital sex -- Wait until you're 16 -- Go with chaperones -- No drinking or other disinhibitors
No premarital sex means no unwanted children. Having chaperones reduces probability of sexual assault or unwanted contact.
On the margins, you probably will help a kid or two from making a mistake. However, for the most part, you're just dealing with an epic dose of selection bias. Somebody inclined to follow those rules is already reasonably responsible and will already handle himself/herself appropriately on dates.
To say that "research confirms prophetic counsel" is a gross, disingenuous overstatement. I'm certain that the researchers gave no such testimony in the academic paper cited by the article...
I love how "world view" is trivialized by using quotation marks--a hallmark of unmitigated bias and propaganda.
They're trying to shove a square peg in a round hole, so to speak.
All the LDS guidelines do is basically magnify the human desire to have sex by a billion times through repression and guilt, so that the second people think they are attracted to each other they get married because they want to screw and can't wait any longer. Heaven forbid you end that relationship which would have permitted sex and start all over! Who knows how long it would be before you meet someone else that you could get married to...the torture of having to wait until marriage completely overshadows all else and people rush into marriage because of it.
Oh but wait there's more! People then STAY in those marriages because of pressure within the church even if they are extremely unhappy. In tscc only situations of abuse and other extreme cases are merit for the big D word. So they often end up like my parents, who are miserable and have basically been roommates for decades, all because my dad has been convinced that it will all be fixed in the next life and therefore worth the hell he's going through in this life.
Isn't it wonderful that Joseph Smith upheld these important LDS standards in his interactions with young women. He couldn't even wait until they turned 16 to boink them behind his wife's back.
If research supports an LDS belief, research is valuable. If research disproves an LDS belief, that silly research is of no importance. The researchers are not modern day prophets.