The Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS) is intended to enhance welfare recipients' employability through education, training, and job placement activities, and provision of Medicaid benefits and child care subsidies. The JOBS Observational Study compared outcomes findings to those from the New Chance Observational Study to examine whether the contrasting programs pose differing implications for mother-child interaction. The JOBS Observational study examined 370 families, using data collected in the JOBS Child Outcomes Study supplemented with detailed measures of the mother-child relationship derived from direct observation and interviews. Findings of the JOBS Observation showed mothers participating in the program exhibiting negative parenting behaviors and reactions to parenting as a result of the stress of participation. Findings were similar in the New Chance Observation, with some group differences. (Includes seven tables charting a comparison of selected features of JOBS and New Chance programs; baseline characteristics of the JOBS Observational Study sample; and statistical data.) (JPB)