Teens who have sex at an early age may be less inclined to exhibit delinquent behavior in early adulthood than their peers who waited until they were older to have sex, according to a new study by University of Virginia clinical psychologists.

"We got a very surprising finding, particularly that early sex seems to forecast less antisocial behavior a few years later, rather than more," said Kathryn Paige Harden, the study's lead author and a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology.

"There is a cultural assumption in the United States that if teens have sex early it is somehow bad for their psychological health," she said. "But we actually found that teens who had sex earlier seem to have better relationships later. Now we want to find out why."

The finding runs counter to popular belief that relate early teen sex to later drug use, criminality, antisocial behavior and emotional problems, they say in the current online edition of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

It also contradicts parts of a study published earlier this year in the same journal that found a connection between early teen sex and later behavioral problems, ScienceDaily reports.