The study described in this paper used data from two national samples of families with children to describe the home environments in which welfare children are being raised and to identify the children’s health, learning, and behavior problems. The study compared children whose families had received Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) payments in the previous 12 months with children in families that were neither poor nor welfare dependent, and with children in poor families that had not received AFDC payments in the last year.