Vicarious trauma in the context of Palestine: the roles of personality, religious coping, and depression in Pakistani adults

The impact of vicarious trauma extends beyond the battlefield and affects individuals exposed indirectly to the global conflict. The purpose of this study was to find out the predictive role of personality and spirituality across vicarious trauma related to Palestine in Pakistani adults. 301 adults (73.8%) women, and (26.2%) men were selected through a purposive sampling technique. The multiple hierarchical regression analysis using the avoidance subfactor of the Impact of Events Scale as the dependent variable revealed that conscientiousness and internalized religious coping significantly negatively predicted avoidance, whereas it was significantly positively predicted by neuroticism, and depression suggesting that both spirituality and personality have shaped the participants’ response to vicarious traumas linked to Palestine. An independent sample t-test showed significant differences between working and non-working participants, as well as between highly educated and less educated participants in the experience of vicarious trauma linked to Palestine.