From early trauma to later leadership: Parents’ workplace safety incidents and children’s later leader emergence

Work injuries are not uncommon; their effects go well beyond injured workers, with their children at risk of experiencing negative mental health outcomes. We develop a conceptual model in which children's perceptions of parents' work injury severity are indirectly associated with leader emergence in young adulthood through their experience of context-specific psychological distress and posttraumatic growth, with parenting (i.e., authoritative parenting) and family (i.e., household chaos) factors moderating the relationship between psychological distress and posttraumatic growth. We conduct two studies, each using time-separated, online surveys. Participants in Study 1 ( N = 143) and Study 2; ( N = 325) are young adults from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada (Study 1), and Canada (Study 2) who had a parent involved in a workplace safety incident when they were between the ages of 3–17 years. Support emerged for the indirect effects of perceived severity of parents' work injury on leader identity (Study 1), and leader role occupancy (Study 2) through psychological distress and posttraumatic growth. Authoritative parenting and household chaos moderated the effects of psychological distress on posttraumatic growth in Study 2. By highlighting the effects of non-normative, potentially traumatic events in childhood on later leader emergence, these results (1) demonstrate the need to extend the lifespan development model of leader emergence, and consider the consequences of workplace safety incidents beyond (2) injured workers themselves, and (3) only negative outcomes. • Leader emergence can be impacted by non-normative childhood events. • Children of injured workers can experience leader emergence in young adulthood. • Injury severity, psychological distress, and posttraumatic growth contribute to this. • Parenting and family factors impact the relationship between distress and growth. • Despite the distress, children of injured workers can experience positive outcomes.