Trauma and Vocations

The research on how exposure to trauma can impact how one lives out their vocation has concentrated on the areas of parenting, marriage, and career, with no research on how trauma can affect religious or priestly vocations. Overall, trauma appears to potentially have adverse effects on the vocations studied, mainly when one develops PTSD as a result of their exposure to trauma.

Before we begin, it is essential to remember that just because someone has experienced trauma does not mean they are doomed to develop these outcomes. And if a person has developed a particular negative outcome due to trauma exposure, they are not necessarily doomed to have it forever. Healing and resilience are possible, and many factors can prevent these outcomes from happening in the first place, and many factors can lead to their healing if they have occurred.

Trauma and Parenting

The research on how trauma can impact one’s parenting has focused on the role of PTSD. Overall, especially in those who develop PTSD as a result of their traumatic experience, trauma can lead to worse parent-child relationships, more stress about parenting, and more controlling and hostile behaviors directed toward one’s child (1). Additionally, PTSD is associated with less consistent discipline, less positive parenting, and poorer supervision of one’s children (2). Finally, in a study of mothers in the US, when the mother had been exposed to more trauma and had more PTSD symptoms, she had a higher likelihood of engaging in child abuse (3). Overall, these findings point to the need to support parents who develop PTSD, as it appears to make it more difficult to parent in healthy and positive ways.

Trauma and Marriage

There hasn’t been as much research on how trauma can impact marriage. However, in one study conducted with soldiers returning from war and their wives, the more PTSD symptoms the soldier had, the less marital satisfaction the soldier and his wife reported, indicating that the trauma symptoms might make it challenging to have an excellent marital relationship (4)

Trauma and One's Career

Finally, one study conducted with college students found that exposure to trauma, and particularly having more PTSD symptoms, can lead to more difficulties in deciding on one’s career, more anxiety about committing to a career path, and a worsened ability to do the relational parts of work, such as appropriately talking to one’s supervisor and making it to work on time (5).

Conclusion

Overall, it appears that for those who develop PTSD following exposure to trauma, the trauma can negatively impact a person’s parenting, marriage, and career. However, since a small proportion of those exposed to trauma develop PTSD, more research is needed about how trauma in general affects these areas and how trauma can impact priestly and religious vocations.

There is hope for healing and resilience following exposure to trauma. If you or someone you know may be suffering from these adverse effects of trauma, please visit the healing resources page to begin your healing journey.

To learn more about the effects of trauma, please visit the following pages: