Research Articles

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A research article reports the results of original research, assesses its contribution to the body of knowledge in a given area, and is published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The faculty publications through published and on-going articles/researches are captured in this community

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 39
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    Conducting a qualitative research on suicide in Ghana using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA): A reflection after a decade
    (New Ideas in Psychology, 2021) Osafo, J.
    Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) set of guidelines allow a researcher to gain access to the meaning of a phenomenon (e.g. suicide) through the individual person’s lived and personal experiences. In this paper I have discussed that the ethical challenges that confront researching suicide in Ghana the challenges of pursuing an idiographic rigor using the IPA may arise from the pervasive normative self-construal within Ghanaian communities. Though I admit the IPA has been useful in various studies within the African context, I have also interrogated such idiography within the normative social arrangement of such setting where sociocentric per spectives abound. This essay is a reflexivity on the IPA in a normative context after a decade, where suicidal behaviour is strongly proscribed and personhood is deeply shared. I have recommended that one way of addressing this challenge is to use a ‘funnel’ approach in interviewing from the general: the community, to the particular: the individual.
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    The experiences of providing caregiving for patients with schizophrenia in the Ghanaian context
    (Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 2018) Odue, G.; Osafo, J.; Parikh, N.S.; et al.
    Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that is often characterized by significant distortions in thinking and perception, accompanied by the exhibition of inappropriate emotions (Zhai, Guo, Chen, Zhao, & Su, 2013). It alters one's perception of reality, often manifesting in the af fected individual to think and act in ways that are strange or abnormal. It is estimated that schizophrenia affects approximately 1% of the global population (Fatemi, 2010). According to the World Health Or ganization (WHO), around 450 million people are suffering from a mental or behavioral disorder worldwide (WHO, 2003). Schizophrenia usually starts in late adolescence or early adulthood and follows a variable course, with complete symptomatic and social recovery in only one third of cases (Tandon, Keshavan, & Nasrallah, 2008). The impact of schizophrenia has multiple contexts. Awad and Voruganti (2012) classified the effect of schizophrenia at three levels: 1) the patient un dergoing personal suffering, 2) the caregiver and/or families experi encing the burden of care along with the added responsibility of tran sitioning the relative from inpatient to outpatient treatment, and 3) society due to the strain on the health care delivery system (e.g., fre quent hospitalizations), as well as long-term financial and psychosocial support. Globally, there has been a shift from institutionalized car egiving of patients with schizophrenia to informal caregiving primarily by family (Chan, 2011). Some of the positive outcomes of such a shift, as argued by Björkman and Hansson (2002), are reduced stigmatization and improved quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia.
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    “We Now Have a Patient and Not a Criminal”: An Exploratory Study of Judges and Lawyers’ Views on Suicide Attempters and the Law in Ghana
    (International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2018) Osafo, J.; Akotia, C.S.; Andoh-Arthur, J.; Boakye, K.E.; Quarshie, E.N-B.
    This study explored the views of judges and lawyers of the superior courts of Ghana on the law criminalizing attempted suicide. Qualitative data were collected from 12 experienced legal practitioners of the superior courts (five judges and seven lawyers) using a semi-structured interview schedule. Thematic analysis of the data yielded three main perspectives: In defence of the Law, Advocating a Repeal, and Pro-Health Orientation. Although exploratory, the findings of this study offer cues for stepping up suicide literacy and advocacy programmes toward either a repeal of the law or a reform.
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    Social injury: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the attitudes towards suicide of lay persons in Ghana
    (International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 2011) Osafo, J.; Hjelmeland, H.; Akotia, C.S.
    One way of furthering our understanding of suicidal behaviour is to examine people’s attitudes towards it and how they conceive the act. The aim of this study was to understand how lay persons conceive the impact of suicide on others and how that influences their attitudes towards suicide; and discuss the implications for suicide prevention in Ghana. This is a qualitative study, using a semi-structured interview guide to investigate the attitudes and views of 27 lay persons from urban and rural settings in Ghana. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings showed that the perceived breach of interrelatedness between people due to suicidal behaviour influenced the informants’ view of suicide as representing a social injury. Such view of suicide influenced the negative attitudes the informants expressed towards the act. The negative attitudes towards suicide in Ghana are cast in consequential terms. Thus, suicide is an immoral act because it socially affects others negatively. The sense of community within the African ethos and The Moral Causal Ontology for Suffering are theoretical postulations that are used to offer some explanations of the findings in this study.
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    Factors Contributing to Divorce in Ghana: An Exploratory Analysis of Evidence From Court Suits
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) Osafo, J.; Asante, K.O.; Ampomah, C.A.; Osei-Tutu, A.
    In Ghana, some divorce cases are conducted through the courts, and the reasons for such cases are important to gauge the factors that account for the dissolution of marriages in Ghana. This study was conducted to explore in-depth, the factors that lead to divorce using court suits in Ghana. Data were obtained from 30 lawsuits consisting of 11 men and 19 women with an age range of 29–71 years. Reasons for marital dissolution were assembled from a 10-year period (2007–2017) cases of divorce from the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Conventional content analysis identified six main factors as possible reasons for divorce: infidelity, abuse, financial support, intimacy, financial problems, third-party intrusion and gender-role ideology. Men were likely to seek for divorce at an older age compared to women. Women attributed reasons for divorce to lack of respect from the husband and gender-role ideology. Our findings underscore the need for pre-marital counseling psychologists to help would-be couples address pertinent issues which could lead to distress and ultimately divorce in their marriages.
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    Ethical dilemmas in psychological services in Ghana: the views of clinical psychologists
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) Oppong, V.B.; Osafo, J.; Ofori-Atta, A.
    Ethics reflects the moral principles upon which most professional practices rest. It forms the basis to do good, to do no harm, to respect others, and ensure justice. The purpose of this study was to investigate ethical dilemmas experienced by 20 clinical psychologists in Ghana. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate ethical dilemmas faced in professional practice. Using thematic analysis, the reported dilemmas included third-party involvement, (sub-themes: Therapy with Minors, Marital Disclosures, Source of referral, Duty to Warn), Dual relationships (subthemes: Collegial Relationships, Power Differential in Relationships), Cultural competence, and Policies and practices. The findings showed that although some of these dilemmas are universal, others arise (e.g., cultural competence) from the general cultural context of Ghana and the professional culture within which clinical psychologists are socialized. Recommendations to assist clinical psychologists address ethical dilemmas in Ghana and implications for the development of ethical regulations in the country are addressed.
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    Inter‑Sectoral Management of Suicidal Persons in Ghana: Tensions and Prospects
    (springer, 2021) Osafo, J.; Andoh‑Arthur, J.
    Inter-sectoral collaboration health care model is essential for efective suicide prevention and treatment. This brief report presents three cases to illustrate two important facts in suicidology and related observed dynamics working as suicide researchers in Ghana. The frst fact is that suicidal work is a multidisciplinary approach. The second: there may be contex tual factors which may make a multidisciplinary approach in working with a suicidal person difcult in Ghana. The frst two cases involved the work of a Clinical Psychologist/Suicidologist (First author), while the third involved the work of a Community Psychologist/Suicidologist (Second Author). Thematic analysis of experiences showed the trajectories of tensions and prospects involved when working as a team in providing help for persons in suicidal crisis in Ghana. Based on the fndings, we make recommendations for scaling up mental health education and suicide training for allied professionals towards enriching and expanding inter-sectoral collaboration in preventing and treating suicidality.
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    The Role of Religious Leaders in Suicide Prevention in Ghana. A Qualitative Analysis
    (Pastoral Psychology, 2021) Osafo, J.; Akotia, C.S.; Andoh‑Arthur, J.; Puplampu, B.M.
    Religious leaders play a key role in providing support to persons in mental health crisis. The aim of this study is to examine how religious leaders in the Ga Municipal District of Ghana perceive their role in the prevention of suicide in their community and the kinds of help they provide to persons in suicidal crisis. A semi-structured interview guide was used to gather data from 28 religious leaders. Thematic analysis of the transcribed data showed that religious leaders perceive their role in suicide prevention as frontliners with a caring obligation to help suicidal persons because of the possible loss of a life. Further, when religious leaders interact with suicidal persons, they create healing communities, provide lay counseling, provide referrals to mental health professionals, offer prayer and deliverance, provide social support, and induce hope in such persons. Implications for interprofessional collaboration and gatekeeper training for religious leaders in Ghana are addressed.
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    Substance use and suicide among men in Ghana: A qualitative study
    (Current Psychology, 2020-02-11) Andoh-Arthur, J.; Hjelmeland, H.; Osafo, J.; Knizek, B.L.
    A known risk factor for suicide globally is substance use. Despite being public health problems across the globe, research on the association between suicide and substance use have often ignored the socio-cultural context in which these behaviors play out. This qualitative study examines bereaved persons’ perception of the roles of substance use in the lifestyles and the suicides of their deceased relations. We conducted an in-depth qualitative interview with between two to seven close relations of nine men who killed themselves in Ghana in the period 2014 and 2015. A qualitative content analysis of bereaved persons’ accounts shows three themes: Behavioral changes connected with substance use, Consequences of substance use and misuse, and Alcohol presence in the suicide act. Thus, novel and excessive alcohol or drug use followed economic, financial, or relational stressors faced by the men. Personal disruption and social disintegration occurring as consequences of continued substance use triggered suicidal behaviors, which in turn appeared to have shaped in particular, use of alcohol as ingredients or tools in the suicide acts itself in some of the suicides. Contextual nuances shaping a dynamic interrelationship between substance use and suicide calls attention to viewing substances as ingredients with shifting functions during the suicidal process. We propose that encouraging emotional disclosure, supporting men with problem-solving skills, and regulating the availability and use of substances through effective alcohol and drug policies may be vital for an integrative public health approach towards suicide prevention in Ghana.
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    Challenges associated with teenage motherhood in Ghana: a qualitative study
    (Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 2020-01-26) Dzotsi, H.T.; Asante, K.O.; Osafo, J.
    Motherhood can be very challenging and overwhelming whether the individuals involved are teens or adults. Although there is a high prevalence of teenage mothers in urban cities in Ghana, little research has been done on the challenges associated with teen motherhood. This qualitative study was therefore conducted to explore the challenges that teenage mothers experience in Ghana. One-on-one interviews were conducted with 28 purposively selected teenage mothers between the ages of 15 and 19. Through thematic analysis, findings showed that challenges associated with teenage motherhood were strained interpersonal relationships, survival difficulties, educational disruption and steep transition to adulthood. These findings call for supportive programmes and interventions that would help address the contextual challenges of teenage mothers and also step up efforts to decrease the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Ghana.