Prenatal appointment keeping is an important predictor of birth outcomes, yet many pregnant adolescents miss an excessive number of appointments. Since effective strategies for increasing appointment keeping require costly staff time, methods to predict relative risk for noncompliance with appointments might help delineate a circumscribed population and reduce costs in promoting appointment keeping. This study tested two different methods for predicting pregnant teenagers at risk for failing to keep appointments for comprehensive prenatal care. Pregnant adolescents (N=63) completed psychological questionnaires assessing depression, social support and life events. They and their primary health care providers also completed the Perinatal Health Belief Scales (PHBS), measuring the respondent's perception of risk and need for services. After giving birth, adolescents completed a measure of health care satisfaction. Chart reviews provided data regarding birth weight, gestational age, Apgar scores and appointment keeping information. The results suggest that adolescents who failed to keep the most appointments were likely to have significantly lower levels of concern regarding their risks during pregnancy than their primary health care provider had. Adolescents were more likely to keep appointments if they expressed levels of concern on the PHBS that were similar to those of their health care provider. The psychological measures and PHBS when applied individually were not successful in predicting those with the greatest likelihood for nonadherence to appointments. (Author/NB)