Social Resilience Of Adolescent Girls To Sex, Teenage Pregnancy And Motherhood In Ghana

Abstract

This study is about older adolescent girls and how they experience sex, cope with teenage pregnancy and early motherhood in Begoro, the district capital of Fanteakwa in the Eastern region of Ghana. Fanteakwa has one of the high teenage pregnancy rates (16%) in the country. The study investigated the socio-demographic background of adolescent girls in Begoro, the social context that influenced their sexual behaviour and experience, and how non-pregnant and ever-pregnant girls build resilience to sex, teenage pregnancy and motherhood. Guided by a social resilience framework, the study focuses on how older adolescent girls access resources within their social environment and how they utilize these resources to avoid, overcome and or adjust positively to the exigencies of sex, pregnancy and motherhood in Ghana. The study employs the mixed method approach, involving the simultaneous use of the quantitative and qualitative approaches. Starting with the collection of the quantitative data, a survey of five hundred adolescent girls (15-19 years) was conducted. This was followed by the qualitative approach where data were gathered through in-depth interviews with twenty adolescent girls purposively selected from the survey respondents. In-depth interviews were conducted with twelve adults (six males and six females), twenty adolescent girls and six adolescent boys in addition to two focus group discussions with eight boys in each group. The in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were held with adult and adolescent boys in the community to provide the community‟s perspective on adolescent girls‟ sexual experience. The findings indicate that adolescent girls live in a changing social environment, with the emergence of new agents of socialization in sexual and reproductive issues. Adolescent girls now live in a society where they have access to multiple sources of information to guide their sexual behaviour. Although community members do not openly accept it, the findings show that there is a gradual move from abstinence from sex, which is the expected sexual behaviour of girls in the community to the practice of abstinence to sex or the use of contraceptives in sexual activities. Thus, the social context influenced adolescent girls‟ exposure to risk as well as how they developed resilience in their sexual and reproductive experience. To maintain a good reputation, non-pregnant girls accessed social, economic and cultural capitals that helped them to avoid unprotected sex and teenage pregnancy. For the ever-pregnant girls, they also strived to have a good social reputation by using their access to social, economic and cultural capital to take care of their health and that of their babies, go back to school or learn a vocation. Hence, girls used their access to the other forms of capital to maintain a good reputation, which made them resilient in their sexual and reproductive experience. The study recommends that to help adolescents develop resilience to sex, teenage pregnancy and motherhood, more awareness must be created at the individual, family and community levels to propagate not only abstinence, but also the use of contraceptive pills and condoms by adolescent girls whenever they indulge in premarital sex. In addition, more studies should be focused on how to support adolescent boys to act responsibly when they engage in sexual relations with girls.