ISSN: 0973-5089 | [email protected]

Vicarious Trauma in Law Students: Role of Gender, Personality, and Social Support

Japneet Bakhshi, Mareena Susan Wesley, and K. Jayasankara Reddy

Christ University, Bengaluru India

Abstract:

Law student trainees are exposed to trauma-related work which puts them at higher risk of being adversely affected by it. Since they are not directly related to the event, their distress goes unnoticed. The repetitive account of traumatic instances leads to traumatization of their own which is referred to as vicarious traumatization. The purpose of this paper was to delve into the degree to which the role of gender, personality, and social support impact law student's vulnerability to vicarious trauma. For the current research, exploratory design was utilized. All one hundred and twenty participants were selected using purposive samphng. Self-report measures were employed to investigate social support, personality traits, and vicarious trauma in sixty male and sixty female law students. The results revealed that female law students and those law students who are high on Neuroticism and low on Extraversion are more vulnerable to experiencing vicarious trauma. Implications for trainees and educators are discussed and suggestions are provided for future research.

Keyword:

Law Students, Gender, Personality, Social Support, Vicarious Trauma.