Moral injury risk and protective factors in women Veterans

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe risk and protective factors for moral injury (MI) in women veterans. The factors identified in this article are based on the findings of previous scholarly work, including a moral injury in women veterans project, a chaplain support study, and Dr. Lisa Miller’s work on spirituality. Recent Findings: Using a grounded theory approach, researchers solicited responses from nearly 50 women veterans on their moral injurious experiences. Risk factors for MI included sexual assault, hostile work environment, gender harassment, retaliation, lack of integrity, and combat and occupation stressors. Based on the chaplain support study and Miller’s spirituality research, this article identified the following protective factors: safe environment in which to work, adherence to and reinforcement of standards of conduct, trusted neutral person in which to confide, community support, and spirituality. Summary: Many types of events can lead to moral injury in military women. For women who self-identified as morally injured, researchers divided these potential moral injurious events (PMIEs) into eight categories. Conversely, protective factors are those resources that can help prevent MI or assist those who do become morally injured. This article describes five protective factors.

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