Do initiation rites hasten sexual debut among adolescent girls? A longitudinal analysis from Ghana

Abstract

Many Ghanaians identify their country’s most enduring female initiation rite as a risk factor for early sexual debut, claiming that initiates interpret the rite as a normative starting point for sexual activity as was standard in the past. However, the assumption that African initiation rites may hasten sexual debut has not been statistically substantiated. This study explores this association using three waves of longitudinal data collected between 2010 to 2013 from 690 girls and young women aged 12-19, about half of whom had participated in the rite. The results suggest that initiates typically participate in the rite at age 11 and begin having sex around age 16, about six months earlier than non-initiates. Results from survival analyses correspondingly indicate that initiates are 50% more likely to report sexual debut than their non-initiated counterparts. This relationship remains robust when accounting for confounding variables and reverse causality and is not moderated by socioeconomic status. Findings suggest that initiation rites should be understood as having potentially meaningful implications for adolescent sexual debut and sexual and reproductive health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. Capitalising on initiation rites for their role in sexual socialisation may be a valuable opportunity to promote sexual and reproductive health among youth.

Keywords:

• Adolescents
• cultural practices
• Africa
• sexual behaviour
• sexual and reproductive health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Of all discrepancies, half (53%) varied in reported age by one year, about one-third (36%) varied in reported age by one to two years, and the rest (11%) varied by 3 years or more. The average discrepancy in reported age was 1.3 years, and participants were more likely to report a higher age of sexual debut as waves progressed. Given the high percentage of reporting discrepancies, the initial analyses were run using two different measures of age at sexual debut: 1) the earliest reported age, and 2) the mean age across waves. These two measures of sexual debut age were highly correlated (r = 0.91, p < 0.001) and were not statistically different from one another. Further, using either measure in the multivariate models did not yield significantly different outcomes (results available upon request).

2 Although the survey item does not reference the specific rite in question, the data confirms that 94% of initiated girls had at least one parent from the practising ethnic group. Qualitative research suggests that girls who have at least one parent from the ethnic group are still strongly expected to participate in the rite (Henderson 2022). Further, given the geographic location of this study and the general disappearance of other female initiation rites in Ghana (Crentsil 2015), it is highly unlikely participants are referencing any other rite besides the rite in question.

Additional information

Funding

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (R01HD061017).