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The Moral Injury Symptom Scale-Military Version

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a multi-dimensional measure of moral injury symptoms that can be used as a primary outcome measure in intervention studies that target moral injury (MI) in Veterans and Active Duty Military with PTSD. This was a multi-center study of 427 Veterans and Active Duty Military with PTSD symptoms recruited from VA Medical Centers in Augusta, Los Angeles, Durham, Houston, and San Antonio, and from Liberty University in Lynchburg. Internal reliability of the Moral Injury Symptom Scale-Military Version (MISS-M) was examined along with factor analytic, discriminant, and convergent validity. Participants were randomly split into two equal samples, with exploratory factor analysis conducted in the first sample and confirmatory factor analysis in the second. Test–retest reliability was assessed in a subsample of 64 Veterans. The 45-item MISS-M consists of 10 theoretically grounded subscales assessing guilt, shame, moral concerns, religious struggles, loss of religious faith/hope, loss of meaning/purpose, difficulty forgiving, loss of trust, and self-condemnation. The Cronbach’s alpha of the overall scale was .92 and of individual subscales ranged from .56 to .91. The test–retest reliability was .91 for the total scale and ranged from .78 to .90 for subscales. Discriminant validity was demonstrated by relatively weak correlations with other psychosocial, religious, and physical health constructs, and convergent validity was indicated by strong correlations with PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms. The MISS-M is a reliable and valid multi-dimensional symptom measure of moral injury that can be used in studies targeting MI in Veterans and Active Duty Military with PTSD symptoms and may also be used by clinicians to identify those at risk.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded in part by the Augusta Biomedical Research Institute (ABRC) (Augusta site). Other funding support provided by the Duke University Center for Aging and Human Development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duke University Medical Center, Box 3400, Durham, NC, 27710, USA

    Harold G. Koenig

  2. King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Harold G. Koenig

  3. Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, People’s Republic of China

    Harold G. Koenig

  4. David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Donna Ames

  5. Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, Augusta, GA, USA

    Nagy A. Youssef

  6. Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    John P. Oliver

  7. Department of Counselor Education and Family Studies, School of Behavioral Sciences, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA, USA

    Fred Volk

  8. Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Ellen J. Teng

  9. South Texas Veterans Healthcare System, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Kerry Haynes

  10. VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Zachary D. Erickson & Irina Arnold

  11. Psychology Department, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Keisha O’Garo

  12. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Michelle Pearce

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  1. Harold G. Koenig
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  2. Donna Ames
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  3. Nagy A. Youssef
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  4. John P. Oliver
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  5. Fred Volk
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  8. Zachary D. Erickson
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  9. Irina Arnold
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harold G. Koenig.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This work complies with all HIPPA regulations and was performed according to principles of the Helsinki Declaration. Institutional review boards (IRBs) at all participating institutions approved this project.

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Koenig, H.G., Ames, D., Youssef, N.A. et al. The Moral Injury Symptom Scale-Military Version. J Relig Health 57, 249–265 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0531-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0531-9

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