The Role of Moral Injury in PTSD Among Law Enforcement Officers: A Brief Report

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Konstantinos Papazoglou¹  Daniel M. Blumberg²  Victoria Briones Chiongbian¹  Brooke McQuerrey Tuttle³  Katy Kamkar⁴  Brian Chopko⁶  Beth Milliard⁷  Prashant Aukhojee⁸  Mari Koskelainen⁹ 

[1] Yale School of Medicine, United States;California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University, United States;Center for Family Resilience, Oklahoma State University, United States;Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto;Centre for Addiction and Mental Health;Department of Sociology, Kent State University, United States;York Regional Police;Department of Psychology, University of Toronto;National Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Division

关键词: law enforcement;    moral injury;    PTSD;    compassion fatigue;    trauma;    health;    resilience;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00310

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY