Qualitative research in social sciences is mostly related to interaction with other people. Such research can be conducted in various ways: interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, and many others. However, the long history of field studies convinced researchers to elaborate on ethical standards of interaction with participants. In this essay, the article “To keep or not to keep? Decision making in adolescent pregnancies in Jamestown, Ghana” written by Engelbert Bain et al. (2019) will be taken as an example of ethical problems. The major ethical problem of this study is that a publication of sensitive information without anonymity protection and consent can highly damage the well-being of participants.
In this article, researchers conduct interviews in an African low-income country with a high fertility rate among adolescents. The study’s methodology was in-depth semi-structured interviews with teenagers 13-19 years old about their experience deciding on abortion (Engelbert Bain et al., 2019). From here, it is evident why it is crucial to fulfilling all ethical standards of research. In the patriarchal society of Ghana, women can be insincere because they are not accustomed to expressing their emotions on such private issues. For example, if parents know about such a discussion with unfamiliar people about abortions, they will severely punish their child for such irresponsible actions. In addition, researchers were required to receive confirmation from healthcare services because of Ghanian laws (Engelbert Bain et al., 2019).
To conclude, the result of discussed research is the long description of respondents’ answers to questions about the decision on pregnancy termination. The ethical problem was caused by the hypersensitive and emotional topic. It is coupled with the problem of the extreme patriarchal nature of society in Ghana. To fulfill the requirements of ethical standards, researchers needed to confirm confidentiality and approve the study in healthcare services.
Reference
Engelbert Bain, L., Zweekhorst, M. B., Amoakoh-Coleman, M., Muftugil-Yalcin, S., Omolade, A. I. O., Becquet, R., & de Cock Buning, T. (2019). To keep or not to keep? Decision making in adolescent pregnancies in Jamestown, Ghana. PloS one, 14(9), 1-18.