2 

Methods and Research Process 

2.1 Study 

Methods 

Several field methods were used in this study to elicit information from three groups in 

the Ga Mashi community: adolescents, school personnel, and health care providers. The primary 

method was the collection of case studies for girls who had experienced at least one unintended 

pregnancy between the ages of 13 and 19. The other methods included community observations, 

focus group discussions with in school and out of school adolescent girls and peer promoters, 

and interviews with teachers and health care providers. 

2.2 Case 

Studies 

Case study information was gathered from 29 girls. The girls were recruited in two ways 

to participate in this study. First, interviewers went house to house in Ga Mashi Town to ask 

whether there were adolescent girls of reproductive age in the house and whether they would like 

to participate in focus group discussions about girls' health. During the focus groups, questions 

were asked about the body, pregnancy, and abortion. After the focus group discussions, some 

girls who had children or who had expressed more knowledge of abortion were asked 

individually whether they had had an abortion and whether they would like to participate in the 

in depth interview phase of the study. Second, during the house to house recruitment, some 

girls when the opportunity to speak with them alone arose were asked whether they knew 

anyone who had experienced a pregnancy as an adolescent. Those who said that they had had an 

abortion were invited to participate in the study. Eventually, through word of mouth among girls 

in the neighborhood, 29 girls were recruited and interviewed. The interview took place at a 

school in the neighborhood to preserve the girls' anonymity. 

Each case study consisted of three interviews with the girls, each lasting from one to two 

hours. In addition to gathering detailed pregnancy, birth, and abortion histories, the case studies 

focused on specific areas of the girls' daily lives related to getting pregnant and coping with the 

pregnancy once it occurred. For example, besides gathering a family history, we also asked the 

girls about their experiences of the onset of menstruation, puberty instruction received at home 

and elsewhere, their knowledge of contraception, their boyfriends' ages and occupations, and the 

nature and length of their involvement with these boyfriends, including their first sexual 

experience. We also asked about their schooling and their aspirations, including how they made 

money and planned for the future.  

The case study was intended to make this type of research as holistic as possible, 

including the interviews with those most intimately involved in helping the girls cope with the 

unintended pregnancy. According to the interview staff, however, the girls did not give 

permission to interview their parents, sexual partners, and close kin. Therefore, the analysis is 

based mainly on the participants' reports of their experiences. 

Field observations included observations of the daily lives of adolescents living in Ga 

Mashi Town, which were recorded by fieldworkers throughout the project. This included the 

places where the teens hung out, what they did after school, how they formed groups, what they 

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