Introduction:Military veterans are at heightened risk for developing mental and behavioral health problems. Morally injurious combat experiences have recently gained empirical and clinical attention following the increased rates of mental and behavioral health problems observed in this population. Objective: Extending extant research, the current investigation assessed the relationship between morally injurious experiences and mental and behavioral health outcomes. Furthermore, it examined the potential protective role of self-compassion in these relationships. Method: Participants were 203 military veterans (M age ϭ 35.08 years, 77.30% male) who completed online questionnaires. Results: Analyses indicated that self-compassion significantly moderated the relationship between exposure to morally injurious experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder, depression severity, and deliberate self-harm versatility. Conclusions: These results highlight the potential clinical utility of self-compassion in military mental health, particularly in the context of morally injurious experiences.
Clinical Impact StatementMilitary veterans experience various stressors while deployed, one of which is exposure to events that are perceived as morally transgressive. Exposure to morally transgressive events has been linked to various negative outcomes. The current study examined whether the relation between morally injurious event exposure and negative mental health outcomes would be lower for individuals high in self-compassion. We found that individuals high in self-compassion (vs. low) had significantly fewer of these negative mental health symptoms after exposure to these events, including fewer posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, depression symptoms, and deliberate self-harm versatility. This study emphasized that self-compassion may be an important consideration in military mental health, and more research is needed to examine the potential clinical utility of self-compassion.
If replicated, findings may suggest the utility of targeting difficulties regulating positive emotions in treatments aimed at reducing alcohol and drug misuse among college students.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.