Given the negative developmental risks associated
with adolescent motherhood, it is important to
examine the sociocultural context of adolescent mothers’
lives to identify those most at risk for poor outcomes. Our
goals were to identify profiles of Mexican-origin pregnant
adolescents’ cultural orientations and their attitudes toward
teen pregnancy, and to investigate how these profiles were
linked to adolescents’ pregnancy intentions, family
resources, and short-term family, educational, and parenting
outcomes. With a sample of 205 Mexican-origin adolescent
mothers, we identified three profiles based on
cultural orientations and attitudes toward teen pregnancy:
Bicultural-Moderate Attitudes, Acculturated-Moderate
Attitudes, and Enculturated-Low Attitudes. The results
indicated that enculturated pregnant adolescents had the
least favorable attitudes toward teen pregnancy, and the
lowest levels of family income, pregnancy intentions,
pregnancy support, and educational expectations compared
to acculturated and bicultural pregnant adolescents;
acculturated adolescents (with the highest family income
and high levels of pregnancy support) had the highest
levels of parenting efficacy 10 months postpartum. Our
findings suggest that enculturated adolescent mothers (with
less positive attitudes toward teen pregnancy) may benefit
from educational support programs and enculturated and
bicultural adolescent mothers (with moderately positive
attitudes toward teen pregnancy) may benefit from programs
to increase parenting efficacy. Such targeted interventions
may, in turn, reduce the likelihood of adolescent
mothers experiencing negative educational and parenting
outcomes.