Childhood Trauma and the Route to Resilience: A Career Analysis

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, childhood trauma, and resilience influenced career choice in the helping professions. University, community, and online participants (<i>N</i> = 133) completed the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey, Brief Resilience Scale, and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. Participants indicated their current job or college major, and whether they believed it fell into the category of a helping profession. The data was then split into two groups: helping or non-helping professions. Multiple, linear regression analysis showed that career adaptability/decision-making significantly predicted PTSD, childhood trauma, and resilience scores for all participants, regardless of their current job (<i>N</i> = 133). Helping profession participants had higher childhood trauma and resilience scores, indicating distress in childhood specifically and current high levels of resilience, which may have been the impetus for their career choice.