TY - JOUR
T1 - Moral Injury and Religiosity in US Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms
AU - Koenig, Harold G.
AU - Youssef, Nagy A.
AU - Ames, Donna
AU - Oliver, John P.
AU - Teng, Ellen J.
AU - Haynes, Kerry
AU - Erickson, Zachary D.
AU - Arnold, Irina
AU - Currier, Joseph M.
AU - O'Garo, Keisha
AU - Pearce, Michelle
N1 - Funding Information:
Nagy Youssef received grant support from the Augusta Biomedical Research Institute ABRC) (Augusta site). The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/5/1
Y1 - 2018/5/1
N2 - Moral injury (MI) involves feelings of shame, grief, meaninglessness, and remorse from having violated core moral beliefs related to traumatic experiences. This multisite cross-sectional study examined the association between religious involvement (RI) and MI symptoms, mediators of the relationship, and the modifying effects of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity in 373 US veterans with PTSD symptoms who served in a combat theater. Assessed were demographic, military, religious, physical, social, behavioral, and psychological characteristics using standard measures of RI, MI symptoms, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. MI was widespread, with over 90% reporting high levels of at least one MI symptom and the majority reporting at least five symptoms or more. In the overall sample, religiosity was inversely related to MI in bivariate analyses (r =-0.25, p < 0.0001) and multivariate analyses (B =-0.40, p = 0.001); however, this relationship was present only among veterans with severe PTSD (B =-0.65, p = 0.0003). These findings have relevance for the care of veterans with PTSD.
AB - Moral injury (MI) involves feelings of shame, grief, meaninglessness, and remorse from having violated core moral beliefs related to traumatic experiences. This multisite cross-sectional study examined the association between religious involvement (RI) and MI symptoms, mediators of the relationship, and the modifying effects of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity in 373 US veterans with PTSD symptoms who served in a combat theater. Assessed were demographic, military, religious, physical, social, behavioral, and psychological characteristics using standard measures of RI, MI symptoms, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. MI was widespread, with over 90% reporting high levels of at least one MI symptom and the majority reporting at least five symptoms or more. In the overall sample, religiosity was inversely related to MI in bivariate analyses (r =-0.25, p < 0.0001) and multivariate analyses (B =-0.40, p = 0.001); however, this relationship was present only among veterans with severe PTSD (B =-0.65, p = 0.0003). These findings have relevance for the care of veterans with PTSD.
KW - Religiosity
KW - US veterans
KW - inner conflict
KW - moral injury
KW - posttraumatic stress disorder
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U2 - 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000798
DO - 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000798
M3 - Article
C2 - 29494381
AN - SCOPUS:85046134506
SN - 0022-3018
VL - 206
SP - 325
EP - 331
JO - Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
JF - Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
IS - 5
ER -