By Michelle Healy

USA Today

The notion that the youngest adolescents — ages 10 to 12 — are more sexually active today than in the past is greatly exaggerated, says a new report in the April issue of Pediatrics. It finds that among both boys and girls, only 0.6percent of 10-year­olds, 1.1percent of 11­year-olds and 2.4 percent of 12-year-olds have had sex, and the incidence of pregnancy among girls age 12 or younger “is mi­nuscule.”

The study also finds sex among very young adolescents is frequent­ly involuntary; 62per­cent of girls who had sex by 10 say their first en­counter was coerced. Fifty percent of girls who had sex by age 11 and 23percent of girls who had sex by age 12 said the same.

“There are chunks of Americans who believe most (young teens) are having sex,” says lead author Lawrence Finer of the Guttmacher Insti­tute, a non-profit that studies reproductive and sexual health. “But it was never the case.”

The analysis uses newly available public data on sexual initiation, contraceptive use and pregnancy among ages 10-19 from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Fam­ily Growth, by the Na­tional Center for Health Statistics and other sources.

Contraceptive use by 15-year-old girls (80 per­cent) is similar to ages 17 and 18 (85 percent).