The social context of schoolgirl pregnancy in Ghana

摘要

Focus-group discussions were held with male and female students to discuss key influences, sexual relationships, condom use and abortion. Our findings suggest that students have a deep respect for their parents, but in practice are more influenced by peers. Most girls had relationships primarily to securing additional resources for their education, but girls who did not need the financial support of boyfriends to continue in school also entered into sex-exchange relationships. Sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) were not taken seriously and modern contraceptives were dismissed. In relationships, girls were prevented from controlling their sexual health and resorted commonly to the use of traditional abortifacients. We conclude that reducing the cost of schooling for girls would reduce their need to enter into high-risk relationships, more work needs to be conducted to empower girls to negotiate their sexual rights to ensure a transition to safer sexual behaviour.View full textDownload full textKeywordsabortion, adolescents, sexuality, pregnancy, sub-Saharan AfricaRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; var addthis_config = {"data_track_addressbar":true,"ui_click":true}; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17450128.2011.564222