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Measuring resilience to major life events

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  • Etilé, Fabrice
  • Frijters, Paul
  • Johnston, David W.
  • Shields, Michael A.

Abstract

There is great interest in understanding who in the population is resilient in the face of major life events, and who is not. In this paper we construct a revealed measure of adulthood psychological resilience by modelling individuals’ responses to ten adverse life events using a dynamic finite mixture regression model applied to 17 years of panel data. Our methodology accounts for non-random selection into events, and differences between individuals in anticipation, immediate response, and speed of adaptation. We find considerable heterogeneity in individuals’ responses to events such as major financial shocks, redundancy and bereavement. We also find that our measure of resilience is correlated with clinical measures of mental health, and that it significantly predicts the psychological response to out-of-sample events. The strongest predictor of our measure of resilience is internal locus of control, which is an individual's belief that life outcomes are under their control.

Suggested Citation

  • Etilé, Fabrice & Frijters, Paul & Johnston, David W. & Shields, Michael A., 2021. "Measuring resilience to major life events," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112526, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:112526
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    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/112526/
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    Cited by:

    1. Tim Friehe & Christian Pfeifer, 2024. "A family member's death increases religious activity: Evidence from Germany," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 458-468, May.
    2. Johar, Meliyanni & Johnston, David W. & Shields, Michael A. & Siminski, Peter & Stavrunova, Olena, 2022. "The economic impacts of direct natural disaster exposure," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 26-39.
    3. Staneva, Anita & Chai, Andreas, 2025. "Migrant well-being in Australia: Does locus of control matter?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    4. Nguyen, Ha & Schurer, Stefanie & Mitrou, Francis, 2025. "The instability of locus of control: New evidence from the distributional effects of major life events," MPRA Paper 126016, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jul 2025.
    5. Stöckel, Jannis & van Exel, Job & Brouwer, Werner B.F., 2023. "Adaptation in life satisfaction and self-assessed health to disability - Evidence from the UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    6. Vincenzo Carrieri & Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2020. "A latent class approach to inequity in health using biomarker data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 808-826, July.
    7. Budría, Santiago & Betancourt-Odio, Alejandro & Wirth, Eszter, 2023. "Does internal locus of control get you out of homelessness?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    8. Freak-Poli, Rosanne & Jenkins, Stephen P. & Shields, Michael A. & Trinh, Trong-Anh, 2024. "Evidence on the Robustness of the Links between Social Relationships and Mortality," IZA Discussion Papers 17274, IZA Network @ LISER.
    9. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Mitrou, Francis, 2025. "Extreme weather events, home damage, and the eroding locus of control," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    10. Kristoffersen, Ingebjørg & Hoang, Dan & Li, Ian W., 2024. "Understanding the mental health-based poverty trap: Dynamics in psychological distress and financial precariousness, and the role of self-efficacy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    11. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2022. "Local area crime and energy poverty," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    12. Botha, Ferdi & Dahmann, Sarah C., 2022. "Locus of Control, Self-Control, and Health Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 15306, IZA Network @ LISER.
    13. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2022. "Locus of control and the mental health effects of local area crime," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • C20 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - General
    • C50 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - General

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