Psychological Trauma In Adulthood

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Religion, if allowed to be influential, can shape an individual’s perceptions of life and how they experience it. These individualistic and collectivistic views on religion and attachment felt to a higher being or beings can be utilized and understood to evaluate how individual’s create and solidify their stances on their spirituality. The ideology an individual may have behind losing one’s faith in their religion or lacking a feeling of attachment to an omniscient being can be attributed to many factors. These various factors, if analyzed and fully comprehended, can offer reasoning and evidence to better understand how what is experienced in childhood can affect how religion and levels of spirituality are affected later in life. While, acknowledging …show more content…

However, as stated above, there are many factors that can be attributed to a lack of religiosity. There are also various factors than can be attributed to the level or type or psychological trauma experienced within childhood. To provide data that is as accurate as possible, instead of relying on intuition and authority, past research will be analyzed to understand the effect of trauma on religiosity. It is from the analyses of past research that ideas concerning a relationship between psychological trauma during childhood and religious preference or levels of attachment to an omniscient being in adulthood will be studied and further supported. Previous studies, such as that of Sansone et al., (2012), Reinert and Edwards (2009), and Dyslin and Thomsen (2011) provide an analysis of childhood maltreatment, resultant psychological trauma from the abuse, and religiosity felt when in adulthood. Dyslin and Thomsen (2011) conducted a study to find links between physical, emotional, and sexual trauma in childhood and religiosity in adulthood of a sample of Midwestern college students. The only link that was found between low levels of religiosity was related to emotional abuse in childhood. Reinert and Edwards (2009) placed a focus on verbal, physical, and sexual trauma and found that the ability of a child’s nurturer(s) to be able to remedy the trauma and mediate distrust in a higher being only worked for physical and verbal trauma. The only link that was found between low levels of attachment and a higher being was associated to sexual trauma that occurred in childhood. This study was conducted on Midwestern college students. Sansone et al., (2012) conducted a study to find links between low levels of religiosity in adult outpatients that were physically and sexually abused in their childhood, finding that children who were

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