MENTAL HEALTH, EMPLOYMENT, AND WELFARE TENURE Daniel Chandler, Joan Meisel, and Pat Jordan California Institute for Mental Health Beth Menees Rienzi California State University, Bakersfield Sandra Naylor Goodwin California Institute for Mental Health  This article determines the prevalence of mental health diagnosis and impairment among 632 participants in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and describes the relationship between these problems and welfare tenure and employment. A random sample of female TANF participants was surveyed in two California counties consecutively for 3 years, starting in 1999. TANF participants who have mental health problems are more likely than those who have none to leave welfare as a result of sanction and less likely to work at all. They also work fewer weeks in a year and fewer hours per week. In the course of 36 months, their earned income is substantially lower than that of those who do not have mental health problems. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. In this article we use a longitudinal sample of 632 women who received welfare to ask three broad questions about welfare reform: ~1! Whether mental health problems are associated with welfare tenure, ~2! whether mental health problems are associated with welfare recipients’ ability to find and maintain employment, and ~3! whether welfare recipients who have mental health problems have substantially lower earned income This research was supported by grants from the Violence Against Women Office of the National Institute of Justice, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the Wellness Foundation, and donations from California counties. Other articles based on the same data are Meisel, J., Chandler, D., & Rienzi, B.M. ~2003! . Domestic violence prevalence and effects of employment on two California TANF populations. Violence Against Women, 9~10! , 1191–1213; and Chandler, D., Meisel, J., Jordan, P., Rienzi, B.M., & Goodwin, S.N. ~2004! . Substance abuse, employment and welfare tenure. Social Service Review, 78~4! , 628–651 Correspondence to: Daniel Chandler, 436 Old Wagon Road, Trinidad, CA 95570. E-mail: dwchandl@cox.net ARTICLE JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 33, No. 5, 587–609 (2005) © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/jcop.20070