The changing nature of adolescence in the Kassena-Nankana district of northern Ghana

This study reports the results of a primarily qualitative investigation of adolescent reproductive behavior in the Kassena-Nankana District, an isolat ed rural area in northern Ghana, where traditional patterns of marriage, fa mily formation, and social organization persist. The study is based on in-d epth interviews and focus-group discussions with adolescents, parents, chie fs, traditional leaders, youth leaders, and health workers, supplemented by quantitative data from the 1996 wave of a panel survey of women of reprodu ctive age conducted by the Navrongo Health Research Centre. The social envi ronment that adolescent boys and girls in the Kassena-Nankana District enco unter and its links to reproductive behavior are described. The principal q uestion is whether even in this remote rural area, the social environment h as been altered in ways that have undermined traditional sexual and reprodu ctive patterns. The survey data indicate a considerable increase in girls' education and the beginning of a decline in the incidence of early marriage . The qualitative data suggest that social institut ions, systems, and prac tices such as female circumcision that previously structured the lives of a dolescent boys and girls have eroded, leading to an apparent increase in pr emarital sexual activity.