Vulnerable adolescent mothers' perceptions of maternal role and HIV risk.

Pregnant adolescents and young mothers living in Los Angeles County are vulnerable to acquiring HIV/AIDS through sexual transmission because they lack the resources, social status, and power to protect themselves. In this article we describe adolescent mothers' (n = 76) responses to an HIV prevention program. The design of the study was based in ethnography, the anthropological tradition of qualitative research. Many of the pregnant teens and young mothers described how the experience of becoming a mother helped empower them to improve their lives. Yet efforts to decrease risky sexual behavior were overshadowed by more immediate concerns and by relationship issues of gender and power and of trust.