Experiences of Domestic Violence as a Child and Career Choice

Abstract

Moving past descriptions of the amount and nature of domestic violence, researchers in the area of childhood violence now explore a variety of outcomes of experiences of domestic violence as a child. This includes the effects on various outcomes in adulthood though little research so far has explored career choice. In the current study, we examine whether experiencing domestic violence as a child increases the chance that an individual will choose a human services profession as a career and if individuals in the human services professions who report experiences of domestic violence as a child have lower rates of being a victim of domestic violence as adults than those who do not. The findings suggest that experiences of violence as a child do not significantly affect the choice of human services as a career. Those who choose human services as a career, however, are less likely to experience domestic violence as an adult.