7 Conclusions 

These girls' experiences leading up to becoming pregnant and the strategies they used to 

cope with pregnancy both contradict and explain some of the findings in the health and survey 

literature on adolescent health and sexual behavior in Ghana. Although the findings are limited 

to girls in Ga Mashi, Accra, they point out the need for smaller, more in depth studies both to 

counter general assumptions about the experience of teenage pregnancy and abortion and to 

adapt programs to specific circumstances in communities where the social dynamics vary.  

First, these girls' stories illustrate that they are struggling to establish themselves as 

money earners and partners in stable relationships with males, beginning in their mid  to late 

teens. Their long term financial strategies typically involve trade and employment rather than 

formal education. Formal education did not appear to be an option for most of these girls, not 

because they had to drop out of school due to pregnancy, but rather because their parents and 

guardians were unable, or perhaps unwilling, to support them beyond junior secondary 

schooling. It was at that point, after leaving school, that most girls transitioned into adult 

pursuits, which included developing a stable sexual relationship.  

Most of these girls were in long term relationships with a first or second boyfriend or had 

one or two sexual partners before developing a long term relationship. Many of these 

relationships endured whether the couple considered themselves married or not. Those who did 

not have long term relationships generally practiced serial monogamy. Girls tended to get 

sexually involved with boys their own age or within 10 years of their age with a few exceptions. 

Girls maintained that they became sexually involved with their boyfriends because of both love 

and money, as is common in various socioeconomic groups in Ghana (Pellow, 1977).  

These findings contradict the assumption that most unmarried adolescent girls who get 

pregnant have multiple sexual partners, are casual about sex, or exchange sex for money out of 

necessity. About the latter point, girls from lower socioeconomic groups are thought to be 

especially vulnerable to exchanging sex for gifts either because their parents cannot support them 

or because they cannot earn enough money to survive or stay in school. Most of these girls 

however, were surprisingly resourceful in making money.  None of the girls in the study said 

their parents or guardians deprived them of food or a place to sleep, nor did they say financial 

support was the sole or major reason for getting sexually involved with a man. Only one girl in 

the study (a migrant from Kumasi) described getting into this type of sexual relationship in her 

hometown. This suggests that the  sugar daddy  phenomenon described by Dinan (1983) and 

others may be more common among middle class girls than among lower class girls living in 

Accra or in other locales, such as Kumasi. Although the  deprivation leading to exchange sex for 

gifts and money  dynamic does not fit closely with the experiences described by these girls, it 

may fit other groups to some extent, such as street youth.  

Violence, on the other hand, did seem to play a role in early sexual initiation. The few 

girls who may be considered the less  supported  of the group indicated they ran away or started 

living with a boyfriend to escape from emotional and physical abuse at home. In addition, 

violence and deception by boyfriends and other males played a large role in these girls' early 

initiation to sex. Many said they were raped by their boyfriend or by someone else as their first 

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