We know the importance of having the sex talk, but a new study suggests THE talk may need to happen much sooner than parents have planned.
A study released by JAMA Pediatrics found that 3.6% to 7.6% of boys and young men say they are having sex before age 13 – that’s 1 in 13 boys on average.
BEFORE the age of 13. And that percentage varies greatly depending on demographic.
The study included surveys from two large databases. One came from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System from 2011, 2013 and 2015 where almost 20,000 male students in grades 9-12 completed questionnaires. The other came from The National Survey of Family Growth, which collected data from almost 8,000 in-person interviews from males ages 15-24 in 2006 to 2015.
Though the statistics varied, the study’s findings are staggering.
“Despite similar sexual activity rates among male and female adolescents, males are more likely to have their first sexual intercourse before age 13 years,” the study reports.
Among those surveyed:
