pregnancy is made that is, why one course of action is preferred, what alternatives are 

available, how pregnant unmarried girls seek support, advice, and treatment, or how the male 

who fathered the child influences these processes.  By examining a range of adolescent 

experiences and drawing on the ethnographic literature, this study seeks to identify how girls 

become pregnant and then cope with the pregnancy and when they and their significant others 

might benefit from interventions. Insight into the specific dynamics of the process from the girls' 

perspectives offers new information for developing a coordinated and targeted effort between 

family planning, abortion and health education service providers, and schools to address issues 

related to teenage pregnancy and abortion in the community. 

1.1 

Purpose of the Study and Study Questions 

The study plan recognizes unmarried adolescent girls as active agents in the social 

processes of becoming pregnant and coping with an unintended pregnancy, and thus the study 

questions focus on their actions and the events surrounding unintended pregnancy.  

The study is organized around the following questions: 

1. 

What are the backgrounds and defining life events of unmarried adolescent girls 

living in Ga Mashi Town? What are their experiences with sexual relationships? 

2. 

What strategies are used to prevent pregnancy? How and what do girls learn at 

home, from friends, and in school about sex, pregnancy, and contraception? 

3. 

What strategies are used by unmarried adolescent girls to cope with unwanted 

pregnancy? How do peers, sexual partners, parents, siblings, teachers, and others figure 

into the decisionmaking process, and how are information and material resources 

obtained and used? How do girls' estimation of their life chances and their future plans 

affect their actions and their decision to keep or terminate a pregnancy? What are the 

processes involved in carrying the child to term or terminating the pregnancy (including 

postabortion care and family planning counseling) in Ga Mashi Town? 

1.2 Background 

The study was conducted in Ga Mashi Town in Central Accra (see map). This Accra 

neighborhood was chosen as the study site for two reasons: 1) because it is an urban setting and 

the incidence of  pregnancy loss  in urban settings was found to be about twice as high as in 

rural settings (GSS and MI, 1999) and 2) the principal investigator from the University of Ghana 

hired to conduct the research had previously conducted research in this community and thus had 

connections on which to draw. 

According to oral traditions and historical research, the current site of Accra was first 

settled by several Ga clans who had migrated from what is now Nigeria in the beginning of the 

14

th

 century. Ga oral tradition says that people came by land and by sea from Benin and further 

east over time (Buah 1980). Central Accra, where Ga Mashi is located, is one of six Ga towns

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1

  There are six principal Ga towns, namely, central Accra, Osu, La, Teshie, Nungua, and Tema. 

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