Abstract
Exposure to critical incidents and hence potentially traumatic events is endemic in law enforcement. The study of law enforcement officers’ experience of moral injury and their exposure to potentially morally injurious incidents, and research on moral injury’s relationship with different forms of traumatization (e.g. compassion fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder) are in their infancy. The present study aims to build on prior research and explores the role of moral injury in predicting post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its clusters thereof. To this end, a sample of law enforcement officers (N = 370) from the National Police of Finland was recruited to participate in the current study. Results showed that moral injury significantly predicted PTSD as well as its diagnostic clusters (i.e., avoidance, hyperarousal, re-experiencing). The aforementioned role of moral injury to significantly predict PTSD and its clusters were unequivocal even when compassion fatigue was incorporated into the path model. Clinical, research, and law enforcement practice implications are discussed.
Highlights
Moral injury has received burgeoning attention in the scholarly literature
Moral Injury and PTSD in Law Enforcement associated with moral injury (e.g. Litz and Kerig, 2019; Nash, 2019), defining potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs; e.g. Yeterian et al, 2019), and differentiating both index events and outcomes associated with moral injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; e.g. Jinkerson, 2016; Currier et al, 2019)
Two path models were tested to examine the influence of police moral injury and compassion fatigue on PTSD and the respective PTSD clusters of re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal using the AMOS 26 program
Summary
Moral injury has received burgeoning attention in the scholarly literature. A recent special issue of Journal of Traumatic Stress was dedicated to a discussion of moral injury and included a comprehensive review of the literature on this topic (Griffin et al, 2019). According to the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for PTSD, moral injury refers to unprecedented traumatic life events wherein one perpetrates, fails to prevent, or witnesses actions that “transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations” Litz and Kerig, 2019; Nash, 2019), defining potentially morally injurious events Yeterian et al, 2019), and differentiating both index events and outcomes associated with moral injury and post-traumatic stress disorder Questions remain regarding best practices for treating moral injury and the extent to which current treatments for PTSD are suitable to treat moral injury (e.g. Barnes et al, 2019; Griffin et al, 2019; Neria and Pickover, 2019) or if new treatments designed for moral injury would be more efficacious (e.g. Nash and Litz, 2013; Jordan et al, 2017)
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