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 Researchers examined data from two nationwide surveys - one with
almost 20,000 male high school students and another with more than
7,700 males ages 15 to 24. Overall, 7.6 percent of high school
students in the first survey and 3.6 percent of participants in the
second survey reported having sex for the first time before age 13.
Across cities nationwide, the proportion of boys who reported having
sex before age 13 ranged from as small as one in 20 in San Francisco
to as large as one in four in Memphis, Tennessee.
"Adolescent males' attitudes and value about their sexuality and
masculinity are influenced by the social context of their
community," said lead study author Laura Lindberg, a researcher at
the Guttmacher Institute in New York City.
"Our findings reflect that where you live exposes you to different
social norms about manhood," Lindberg said by email. "The variation
across settings means that programs for young people's development
and health need to be tailored and responsive to the communities
they are in."
In most cities examined in the study, black males were more likely
to report having sex before age 13 than their white counterparts. In
many cities, Hispanic males were also more likely to have sex at
young ages than white boys.
Compared to black males, white males were 79 percent less likely to
have sex before age 13, and Hispanic males were 73 percent less
likely.
In the survey of older teens and young adults, 8.5 percent of
participants who had sex before age 13 described it as "unwanted,"
and another 37 percent said they had "mixed feelings" about it. A
similar proportion of young men who waited longer to have sex
described their first encounter as unwanted or had mixed feelings.
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The two surveys asked about sex differently. The larger one asked
high school boys about the age of first sexual intercourse without
specifying the partner's sex. But the smaller survey, involving
males from adolescence through early adulthood, asked about the
timing of first heterosexual intercourse.
Another limitation of the analysis is that it focused on
vaginal-penile intercourse, which may not necessarily be the type of
sexual encounter all young people have or want to have, the study
authors note in JAMA Pediatrics.
"Of course, young people engage in a range of sexual behaviors, and
age at first vaginal sex is only one indicator of sexuality,"
Lindberg said.
Still, the results suggest that parents and educators may need to
start talking with children about sex at younger ages if they want
to ensure kids have all the facts about safe sex and relationships
before they become sexually active, the study team notes.
"From naming body parts to explaining where babies come from,
parents should be talking early and often with their children in an
honest way about sex," Lindberg said. "Parents and educators can't
wait until a high school class to cover key topics when many young
males start having sex before this."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2D0Xm7u JAMA Pediatrics, online April 8, 2019.
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