Our Young Lives families are not strangers to shocks, however, young people are beginning their adult lives in unprecedented times as they face the newly urgent global crises of COVID-19 pandemic, climate breakdown and conflict. 

Shocks and Crises is a bold new cross-cutting work programme that explores current challenges young people in are study countries are facing, unprecedented in the past century, to ensure our research is providing timely evidence to policy.

These challenges include 

• Climate; a worsening crisis that is now causing intense stress in the poorest communities,
• Covid-19; the global health pandemic has caused economic disaster with young people in the global South particularly hard hit,
• Conflict; particularly in Ethiopia. 

We have documented the long-lasting effects that climate shocks such as droughts, flooding and extreme temperatures can have on children’s development.  Further research is needed to understand the cumulative effects of multiple shocks, and where policy may be able to make a difference. 

During the pandemic, Young Lives documented the short-term effects of the COVID-19 crisis on young people. Our findings showed that it led to interrupted education, stress and diminished well-being, and widening inequalities between men and women in the labour market impacting the most vulnerable young people most.

Young Lives research will continue to contribute to understanding the challenges the long shadow of the pandemic poses for young people, as well as the impact of the escalating climate crisis and conflict on their lives.