Background:The purpose of study was to investigate the migration experience and its impact on the depression and pregnancy rates among 14-17 year old girls of Mexican origin both in the United States and in Mexico. Methods: Study employed a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology to compare risk for depression, pregnancy, and access to care. Results: Quantitative instruments to measure depression do not fully capture prevalence. Qualitative methods are therefore necessary to provide a fuller understanding of depression and the experience of participants with teen pregnancy. Conclusion: Working with vulnerable populations entails making methodological choices that empower communities. These choices are then confounded when the areas of research are sensitive topics.

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Adolescent pregnancy continues to be a significant public health problem that negatively affects adolescent health both in Mexico and the United States, especially in rural areas. In spite of an overall declining adolescent birthrate in the United States, Hispanic adolescent girls are more than twice as likely to become pregnant than their white non-Hispanic counterparts [1]. In Mexico, between 2003 and 2012 there were 5.76 million births to girls under 19 years of age [2]. In 2012, births to teen mothers represented 18.7% of total births in Mexico. On average, each year Mexican teen mothers give birth to 448,000 children. In the United States, over 615,000 teens between 15 and 19 become pregnant each year with 42 per 1,000 births to Hispanic adolescent mothers [3]. Nearly 85% of teen pregnancies are unplanned [4]. Binational outcomes that these teenage mothers share include low academic achievement with limited educational resources, inaccessible health care, a lack of contraceptive services and knowledge of reproductive health that lead to a common vulnerability for early pregnancy.