About a quarter of black boys in urban areas have had sex before age 13, a shocking new study finds.
Researchers said that between eight and 12 percent of all boys have had sex before reaching age 13, but it was much higher in inner cities.
While the boys had varying attitudes about intercourse, nearly 40 percent said they had 'mixed feelings' about their first sexual experience and roughly 10 percent said it was unwanted.
Some of the boys reported that they were coerced or pressured by their peers into having sex before they were ready.
The team, led by Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, says the findings show the need for early access to sex education, sexual health clinics and mental health facilities for inner city boys and teens.
A new study from Johns Hopkins Medicine has found that nearly 50 percent of African-American boys who had sex before age 13 didn't want or had 'mixed feelings' about if (file image)
In the US, the average age at which both men and women report having sex for the first time is about 17.
Past studies have found that having intercourse before age 13 is linked to higher risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), as well as other behavioral issues like substance use and skipping school.
For the study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, the team collected data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the National Survey of Family Growth run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The first survey looks at six categories of health-related behaviors that lead to death and disability in adolescents and young adults, and the second studies family life, pregnancy, contraception and infertility among US men and women.
Researchers focused on the age at which men first reported having sex and their attitudes about the experience.
Among black men, nearly 25 percent - and mostly in urban areas such as San Francisco and Memphis - said they had sex for the first time before age 13.
