Effects of Disruptive Events

Individuals often experience disruptive events such as losing jobs, homes, or experiencing health shocks. These vents can occur alongside periods of economic recession, natural disaster, pandemic, and other large-scale macro conditions, or they may happen outside these contexts. Disruption can induce socioeconomic loss, psychological distress, and injurious health consequences, potentially inducing long-term scarring effects on wellbeing for families. Disruptive events may be particularly harmful for children because they impact access to resources, cognitive and socioemotional development, and health, in ways that shape later educational attainment and socioeconomic wellbeing. Much attention focuses on overall average effects of disruptive events. However, the consequences of such events vary, sometimes dramatically, across different groups. Some studies suggest that the same event could have profound negative consequences for some populations but less, or even no, impact among others.