Examining the dual role among adolescent mothers of pre-tertiary school students in Ghana

Introduction

The problem of teenage pregnancy among schoolgirls is a major challenge for girls’ education in many countries around the world (Hosie, 2007). Globally, 16 million girls give birth during adolescence each year (Ngum Chi Watts et al., 2015). The global effort to advance girls’ education has spawned several international conventions and declarations over the past 70 years. These included the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Convention for the Extermination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of 1979, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of 1989, the United Nations Millennium Declaration of 2000 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2015. Other conventions and declarations of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the International Labor Organization (ILO) placed great emphasis on the commitment of member countries to eliminate all forms of discrimination in access to education (Child Right and You (CRY), 2019). These conventions and declarations aim to promote equality and equity in education in all countries of the world. All member countries have rectified the conventions and adopted guidelines for inclusive education and pregnancy among young people.

Across the African continent, 42 million people are not in school and 60% are girls due to adolescent pregnancy and childbirth (Chang’ach, 2012). The continent has also endorsed conventions and declarations on girls’ education, including the 1981 Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the 2004 African Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality, and the 2009 African Union Gender Policy. For instance, Nigeria has adopted Universal Basic Education, and Children’s Rights and Protection Acts programs to remove barriers to girls’ education (Omede and Agahiu, 2016). Namibia passed a policy in 2001 allowing female students to continue after leaving school due to pregnancy (Shaningwa, 2007). Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya have adopted such strategies, including Free Secondary Education (FSE) (Manu, 2020).

In Ghana, between 2016 and 2020 alone, about 555,575 adolescents were said to be pregnant. The Central Region is one of the regions characterized by a high prevalence of adolescent pregnancy. It is reported by the Ministry of Health to rank third on the national teen pregnancy scale (Citinewsroom.com, 2021). According to a report by the Ghana Health Service, there were 7558 teenage pregnancies in the region in 2021, with Assin North District topping the list with 16.77% (Citinewsroom.com, 2022). The national policies toward promoting girl child education include the provisions of the Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana, Children’s Act 1998, Education Act 2008, Education Strategic Plan 2010–2020, Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda II of 2014–2017, Inclusive Education Policy 2015 and the National Gender Policy 2015. The country also adopted a Free and Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy in 1995 and a Free Secondary Education (FSE) policy in 2017 (Kwegyiriba, 2021). This eliminated tuition fees in pre-tertiary schools to increase demand for education and improve girls’ enrollment. To further promote the education of girls at this level, a Girls Education Unit was established under the Department of Basic Education of the Ghana Education Service in 1997 (Frank et al., 2014). These policies also allow female students to continue their education after leaving school due to pregnancy, particularly at the primary and secondary levels.

Despite the campaign for girls’ education, Operation Girls’ Education, and the country’s re-entry policy for teenage mothers, the situation of adolescent student mothers has not been adequately addressed (Quaye and Attom, 2019). Whenever pregnancy occurs, it is the girl that bears a load of childcare after delivery. In such a case, it seems almost impossible to do other things like continue school. These teenage students face not only the burden of childcare but also the duty of their pedagogical work. However, research has focused on student mothers in regular universities (Bruening et al., 2017). Some research also relates to distance-learning student mothers (Dankyi et al., 2019). Other research has focused on the common challenges faced by students at various regular universities (Eyster et al., 2014; Beeler, 2016). Although teenage pregnancy has been documented among pre-tertiary school students, it consists of the incidence and challenges faced by teenage mothers (Quaye and Attom, 2019), Back to School-Resilience among Student Mothers in Ghana (Ibrahim, 2018), Exploring the Challenges of Adolescent Mothers from their Life Experiences in the Transition to Motherhood (Mangeli et al., 2017), Teen Mothers and Schooling Lacunae and Challenge (Chigona and Chetty, 2008). The authors observed that little has been carried out on how those adolescent student mothers in pre-tertiary schools strike a balance between caring for the child and paying attention to their educational work, and the implications of their dual role. It is against this backdrop that, the study examined the dual role among adolescent mothers of pre-tertiary school students in Ghana, with students from Assin North Senior High Technical School (SHTS) in the Assin North District of Central Region as a case study.

Theoretical framework

The study was based on the role conflict theory of Gross et al. (1966). Role conflict theory involves the clashing of two or more of a person’s roles in such a way that full fulfillment of both is realistically impossible (Parson, 1951). These conflicting roles have unique differences in requirements, beliefs, expectations, and attitudes (Adofo, 2013). Gross et al. (1966) identified two types of role conflict. These include intra-role conflicts and inter-role conflicts.

Intra-role conflict occurs when the design of the requirement and the expectations that define a particular role are contradictory (Adofo, 2013). In the context of the study, the adolescent student mother’s mind and attention are divided on the fulfillment of each role while she is contemplating the other role.

Inter-role conflict, on the other hand, refers to the case where the requirement and expectations of one role interfere or conflict with another role of the same person (Adofo, 2013). In such a case, the individual perceives that others have different expectations of filling two or more positions (Gross et al., 1966). In the context of the study, the adolescent student mother is both mother and wife (if married). Therefore, her husband and children expect her to spend most of her time with them. But the teachers and peers expect her to spend most of the time during and after school on homework, assignments, projects, and studying.

The adolescent student mother cannot meet these contradictory expectations. Therefore, as the holder of two key positions, she finds herself in a dilemma.

Methodology

The study implemented the case study design within the qualitative approach. This allowed researchers to gain a deep understanding of the phenomena under study (Creswell and Creswell, 2017). The study was conducted at Assin North SHTS in the Assin North District, Central Region, Ghana. This noble educational institution was founded in 1985 through the combined efforts of six communities (Asempaneye, Praso, Dansame, Kushea, Breman, and Achiano) in the Assin North District. Its main goal was to meet the second-cycle educational needs of local children. In 1990 the school was taken over by the Ministry of Education to run Senior High programs. Assin North SHTS is a mixed school with day and boarding facilities. The school offers seven (7) programs including General Science, Agricultural Science, Home Economics, Visual Arts, General Arts, Business, and Technical. There are currently three thousand two hundred nine (3209) students assigned to the school by the Ministry of Education, of whom thousand five hundred nineteen (1519) are girls and thousand six hundred and ninety (1690) are boys (https://assinnorthshs.unilynq.com/info/home).

The central region was chosen because it ranks third on the national scale for teenage pregnancy. Assin Northern District was also chosen because it tops the list with 16.77% of the region’s 7558 registered teenage pregnancies in 2021 (Citinewsroom.com, 2022). The school is the first and largest high school in the district and was chosen because the researchers have taught at the school and have lived in the district for a long time. It was also based on proximity, accessibility, and convenience in data collection.

A purposive sampling technique was used to select a total of fifteen (15) adolescent student mothers as survey participants and interviewees for the study. Mugenda and Mugenda (1999: 50), noted that purposive sampling allows a researcher to use, study sites that have the required information that could answer the objectives of the research. The adolescent student mothers were chosen because they are deeply affected by the dual role, and their involvement in the study would provide key information on the subject under study. In addition, empirical evidence suggests that children under five (5) years of age require more attention from their mothers and caregivers to grow and develop psychosocially (Erickson, 1982).

Data was generated through face-to-face interviews. This was influenced by the assertion of Yin (2017) that in many situations the use of a research interview rather than, say, a questionnaire can be an indicator of the greater importance attached to the research topic. A semi-structured interview guide was used in conducting the interviews. The interview lasted 30 min with each respondent taken through the same question in line with the objectives of the study. This was done individually and answers given by them were audio-recorded, and transcriptions were made of each interview thereafter. The interviews were conducted on campus and at the respondents’ homes. Respondents were offered a copy of the interview transcripts and encouraged to review them to prevent false quotes and forgeries. The interviews were supplemented by field observations. The observations gave the researchers the opportunity of looking at what is happening (Wilkinson and Birmingham, 2003). Both the interviews and the observations were conducted from October 2022 to January 2023.

The study is rooted within the interpretivism or constructivist philosophical orientation. This is grounded in the ontological position of relativism that indicates that reality differs from one person to another. Reality is thus socially constructed (Pring, 2000). Its epistemological position adheres to a subjective view (subjectivism) in that subjective meanings and subjective interpretation are of greater importance (Pring, 2000). In the tenet of the interpretivism paradigm, researchers can never be completely separate from their values and beliefs and these would inevitably inform how data is collected, interpreted, and analyzed (Ryan, 2008). Thus, it is inductive in nature with an emphasis on the exploration of meaning and insight for generalization (Levitt et al., 2017). The researchers adopted this approach because it helps offer a thick description of the phenomena under study (Holliday, 2007). The data was analyzed in the form of narratives on the themes derived from the questions the study sought to answer. Thematic analysis is considered the most appropriate for any study that seeks to discover using interpretations. This helped to understand the quality of the surrogate (Creswell and Creswell, 2018). The researchers adopted this method because it offers a more systematic and explicit form of data analysis as pinned by (Mostafa and Korush, 2016).

For ethical reasons, the researchers wrote to the headmaster and verbally asked the parents of the students studied for permission. Information consent forms were provided for respondents to sign before the interviews. This made provision for permission to be audio-recorded for written transcription. Efforts were made to ensure and protect the rights, interests, and sensitivity of respondents throughout the study.

A challenge for the study was the language barrier. Among the dominant spoken languages of respondents and parents were Fanti and Twi which are “foreign” to the primary author. However, with the help of the co-authors, the problem of the language barrier was addressed. Furthermore, some parents lived far away from the study area. The study was also interrupted by the Christmas holidays, and some of the adolescent student mothers also went to places far away from the study area for their holidays. However, their contact numbers were recorded and contacted by phone for approvals and follow-up interviews.

Results and discussion

This section presents the results and discusses data on striking a balance, challenges, effects, and remedial measures to the effects of the dual role of adolescent student mothers.

Conclusion

Pre-tertiary educational policies offer students the opportunity to continue after leaving school due to pregnancy. However, when pregnancy does occur, it is the woman who takes on the burden of caring for the child after birth. In such a case, doing other things like continuing education seems almost impossible. The study examined how teenage mothers studying at the pre-tertiary level balance caring for the baby with attention to their academic work and the impact of their dual roles. The results showed that navigating the dual role at the pre-tertiary level is not easy, although colleagues and family members offer support services to achieve a balance between the two roles. However, this is limited. Mind and attention split when thinking about the other role. This, theoretically, is in sync with the role conflict theory. The role conflicts the adolescent student mothers put them in a bind. The inability to find a balance leads to the decision to give up one of the roles. This leads to worsening psychological problems, worsening financial burden, poor academic performance, dropping out of school, poor upbringing, and traumatization of the adolescent student mother and the child. Therefore, schools are advised to offer flexible additional classes on appropriate days and times to supplement the regular hours. Guidance and counseling on coping with stress, trauma, stigma, and carrier guidance should be offered to teenage student mothers in school. Families and the public should provide more support to correct wrongdoing, with more positive reinforcement than neglect and stigma. The awareness campaign on teenage pregnancy and girls’ education needs to be intensified.