1 Children and Financial Hardship through Recession and Recovery. Iceland 2008-2015. Kolbeinn Stefánsson, Researcher, EDDA Center of Excellence, University of Iceland Anton Örn Karlsson, Researcher, EDDA Center of Excellence, University of Iceland Lovísa Arnardóttir, MA Human Rights/ML in Law Abstract In this paper we use latent class analysis of the EU-SILC to derive an indicator of financial hardship we use to determine how children in Iceland were affected by the Great Recession and the subsequent recovery. We focus in particular on comparisons with the elderly and people living in households receiving either disability benefits or unemployment benefits as sheltering these groups was a policy priority of the Icelandic government in the early stages of the recession. We find that children tended to be affected more by the recession than either the adult population or any of the designated vulnerable groups. However, children belonging to these vulnerable groups were not affected more than children that did not, though rising unemployment nevertheless contributed to rising rates of financial hardship among children. Furthermore, children benefitted more from the recovery than members of the designated vulnerable groups but children belonging to these groups tended to benefit less from the recovery than those that did not. Keywords: Great Recession, Financial hardship, Children