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Moral Injury, Meaning Making, and Mental Health in Returning Veterans
Author(s) -
Currier Joseph M.,
Holland Jason M.,
Malott Jesse
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.22134
Subject(s) - mental health , stressor , psychology , meaning (existential) , moral injury , structural equation modeling , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , psychiatry , psychotherapist , statistics , mathematics , economics , macroeconomics
Objective This study examined whether exposure to morally injurious experiences (MIEs) contribute to mental health problems among returning Veterans via meaning made of possible traumas. Method A total of 131 Iraq and/or Afghanistan Veterans completed assessments of exposure to possible warzone traumas, meaning made of a salient stressor from their lives, and mental health symptomatology (e.g., posttraumatic stress, depression, suicidality). Results Structural equation modeling findings revealed that MIEs were indirectly linked with mental health outcomes via the extent to which Veterans were able to make meaning of their identified stressors. However, we also found that the direct path from MIEs to mental health problems was statistically significant. Conclusion These findings provide preliminary evidence that difficulties with meaning making could serve as a mediating pathway for how MIEs increase the risk for adjustment problems after warzone service, but that other factors associated with moral injury also have a bearing on psychological functioning among Veterans.