Risks and Protective Factors for Children Experiencing Adverse Events

Abstract

For children growing up in poverty, risk is part of everyday life. Experiences of chronic poverty are often compounded by multiple and recurrent risks and shocks or adverse events. ‘Shocks’ are unexpected events, such as drought, price fluctuations or family illness or death, that have a negative impact on the household economy. Children’s life chances in education, health, and well-being are closely bound up with, and shaped by, the situation of their households, and their socio-cultural environment, as well as the unequal distribution of power, wealth, and opportunities in societies; all these factors frequently disadvantage the same families (Boyden and Dercon 2012; Pells 2012). However, children are not only affected by shocks, but are also social agents, active in decisions made and strategies adopted in attempting to mitigate the impact of adverse circumstances on their household and on their lives.