TRANSITIONS OVER THE LIFE COURSE

One of the elements of the dimension Our changing world is life events. These events occur throughout a person's life course.

Life events can be times of joy and excitement or pressure and high risk in a person's life. Current and future wellbeing can be affected by the timing, occurrence and readiness for life events such as:

• starting school
• starting work
• the formation and dissolution of relationships
• starting a family
• retirement
• ageing.

Other major events not related to a person's age may also have a large impact on a person's life, including:

• changes in health status
• changing jobs, becoming employed or unemployed
• buying a house or moving house
• substantial changes to income or wealth
• becoming a victim of crime
• being affected by a natural disaster.

TRANSITIONS

The ability to transition successfully from one phase of life to another, or not, can significantly impact on future outcomes e.g. socio-economic mobility. Understanding how people 'bounce back' and deal with various challenges presented over the life course from childhood to older age, and why some people are more more resilient and others are more vulnerable to challenges, is important to communities and governments in designing appropriate services and effective support systems.

Transitions can be analysed in a variety of ways, depending on the availability of the data. These include using:

• longitudinal data sources
• cohort analysis
• recall studies
• linking administrative and survey data sets.

RESILIENCE

Resilience is a complex and multidimensional concept relating to the capacity of people, families or communities to adapt to and absorb the impacts of changes in their lives, including life events, in order to opportunely move forward. Resilience may be intrinsically related to Our wellbeing: Who we are, What we do, Where we live our lives, Our connections, the Wellbeing of others, Risks we face and our Opportunities and barriers. For more information on these elements see Our wellbeing.

A greater understanding of resilience can be gained through information on:

• Risks and pressures facing people, families and communities. See Risks we face in Our wellbeing and Our changing world for more discussion
• Resources (e.g. assets, personal characteristics, insurance and other support systems) available to individuals, families and communities. See Who we are, Wellbeing of others, Our connections, our Opportunities and barriers in Our wellbeing for more discussion
• Factors affecting the transitions process - particularly those that relate to opportunities and barriers to better transition outcomes. See our Opportunities and barriers in Our wellbeing and Our changing world for more discussion.

ACTIONS SUPPORTING WELLBEING

By understanding the current situation and identifying the likelihood of an event occurring, and the risk of not transitioning successfully, a list of priority actions and requirements can be formed. This may include the intrinsic and external resources needed, along with the interventions most likely to be successful in improving the chances of a successful transition.

Intrinsic resources may include identifying personal factors (characteristics), or psychological factors, which have the most impact on the transition experience - either in supporting a positive transition or mitigating those which are detrimental to transition experience.

An environmental scan may assist to identify who is most at risk, what the key pressures during the transition process are for them, the level of risk associated with these pressures, and any pre-emptive strategies which may help reduce the impact of an unsuccessful transition.

The impact of a life event transition can affect the state of wellbeing of the individual, society and/or the system. This can vary depending on how prepared the individual/society/system was. It can also be due to the actions taken, or not taken.

This can lead to a number of questions when trying to understand why a particular impact occurred:

• was a positive transition experience due to the policies, practices and programs put into action to mitigate identified risks?
• was it due to an individual's resilience?
• was it due to the opportunities available?
• was it a combination of circumstances?
• what was the overall impact to the wellbeing of individuals and/or society?

REFERENCES

This section draws on: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2014, Guidelines for resilience systems analysis, OECD Publishing.