Hamid et al. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:164 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/164 and expectations that make them more vulnerable to reproductive ill health [11,13,14]. To further investigate the situation of young women liv- ing in the slum area in Islamabad this study explores how they are prepared for marriage and perceive their transition to marriage and start of sexual and childbearing activity. Methods A qualitative approach using latent content analysis [15] was used to explore the situation of poor young urban women at the time of their marriage and to study their knowledge of and expectations for married life. In qualitative research human behaviour is under- stood from the perspective of those being studied; their perceptions, attitudes and experiences are the focus [16]. For this purpose the Principal Investigator (PI) approached the respondents through a community worker and met them multiple times to establish rap- port with them. Multiple meetings helped the partici- pants to open up to the PI and discuss sensitive issues regarding sexuality and growing up with reference to their marriage and other related topics of their choice. In this respect unstructured interviews helped elaborate on the topics of participants’ choice and probe further their concerns something which could not have been achieved through participatory observations. In using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) information was sought to increase the under- standing of young women’s interpretations of their situation [16]. The FGDs were conducted following the in-depth interviews using a field guide based on the interviews with the respondents to further explore young women’s preparedness for marriage, their knowledge about sexuality, sources of information and their experience of growing up. Research Team The research team comprised a Pakistani medical doc- tor specialized in public health (PI), a Pakistani com- munity worker and two Swedish public health scientists. As a Pakistani woman and public health doctor the PI had both social and cultural knowledge, spoke the language and could move in the community without arousing curiosity. The community worker was a resident of the community who met regularly with the women’s groups and played a key role in giv- ing the insider’s perspective to the study and facilitat- ing the entry of the PI to the community. The insider’s view of the Pakistani researcher was broadened by the outsider’s view of the Swedish researchers, whose experiences living and working in low-income coun- tries enriched the understanding of the data and con- tributed to the analysis. Page 2 of 7 Setting The study was conducted in a slum community in the outskirts of Islamabad city. There are 900 houses in the community with almost 400 having more than one family living in the house. The residents are mainly daily labourers and the majority are illiterate. Few women have attended school beyond the primary level and many have never even started. The young women have limited opportunities for employment and are mostly married shortly after puberty. Their marriage is viewed as a social and religious duty for the parents. If the marriage is delayed it is usually rather because of economic reasons than for lack of finding a suitable partner. The family has to save or generate resources to bear the expenditure of dowry and wedding celebrations. Participants and Data Collection With the help of the community worker, young women aged 15-24 years and engaged to be married within three months were identified. Twenty women who agreed to participate were included in the study. Paren- tal consent was taken as well. Interviewing was done till saturation was reached. Altogether twelve15-19 year old and eight 20-24 year old women were interviewed. The PI interviewed all of the participants. Given the sensitive issues under discussion the authors counter checked whether the age of the PI could be an obstacle in open- ing up of the respondents to the PI and candidly sharing concerns about growing up. A younger interviewer could have been more aware of the world of the young women; using familiar language and raising issues with them she could facilitate their communication and dis- cussion with her. For this five of the respondents were also interviewed by a young data collector. Since the information gathered by the data collector and the PI was the same, it was decided that the interviews carried out by the PI were valid. The participants were inter- viewed in their homes on three occasions with a few days in between to overcome the barrier of talking about sensitive issues with the researcher. This series of conversational interviews gave the women an opportu- nity to expand on a range of issues that they wanted to discuss [16]. Their knowledge about sexual activity, child bearing and sources of sexual and reproductive health information were explored. Following the inter- views, three focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with 14 additional 15-19 year old women. Four or five young women participated in each FGD, which were conducted in the home of one of the participants at their choice. The FGDs were conducted to explore par- ticipants’ views about adulthood with a focus on womanhood. The young women were asked to base