Depression among women on welfare: a review of the literature.

In the "work-first" welfare policy environment embodied in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, situational and personal barriers to employment have received increasing scrutiny from researchers, policy makers, and program administrators. Depression has generated a great deal of concern as a potential barrier to job attainment and retention among welfare recipients. This paper reviews the literature on the prevalence of depression in recent studies of welfare recipients. Starting in the late 1980s, many researchers incorporated reliable and comparable measures of major depression and depressive symptoms into their studies of welfare recipients. These investigations show that rates of depression are high, as is the presence of symptoms. The relevance of this problem for welfare administrators and other professionals is discussed.