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Multiple realities around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) among adolescents in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2021

Joshua Amo-Adjei Open the ORCID record for Joshua Amo-Adjei [Opens in a new window]
Joshua Amo-Adjei*
Affiliation:
Department of Population and Health, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The multiple realities around the sexual and reproductive health of Ghanaian adolescents are explored in this paper. Female and male adolescents (aged 10–19 years, N=298) participated in 40 focus group discussions in 20 communities. A comparative inductive approach has been used to present, analyse and document the sexual and reproductive realities of adolescents in their communities. The findings reveal commonalities as well as differences in the realities among participants. Common realities, regardless of age and sex, were teenage pregnancy and abortion, sexual violence (defilement, rape and coercive sex) and parental neglect. These aside, there were divergent realities for older adolescent girls in particular, e.g. lack of access to contraceptives and understanding of the fertility cycle, and the influences and pressures of social media and varied notions about sexual harassment between female and male adolescents. The findings, overall, underscore the complexity and nuanced lives of adolescents in traversing the sexual and reproductive maturation processes. These events unfold in communities where adolescents are ‘required’ to be silent and ‘play’ innocent regardless of their daily struggles, compounded by limited opportunities to learn and unlearn embedded norms about sexual and reproductive functioning. Some implications for sexual health promotion programmes are outlined.

Keywords

Reproductive healthSexual healthAdolescents
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , May 2022 , pp. 482 - 493
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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