Suicide rates within U.S. military components, particularly the National Guard, are significantly higher than the general population suicide rate. To better understand and prevent suicide within this population, we must identify mechanisms of risk contributing to these discrepancies. One risk factor relevant to military service is moral injury, a term for experiences that violate one's moral beliefs. Using a series of hierarchical multiple regressions, the current study examined the moderating role of post-deployment social support on the association between moral injury (self-transgressions, other-transgressions, and betrayal) and thwarted belongingness among military personnel. The current sample was comprised of 552 military personnel with at least one previous deployment. Partially consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that other-transgressions and betrayal were significantly associated with thwarted belongingness at low, but not mean or high levels of post-deployment support. In contrast, the interaction of self-transgressions and post-deployment support was not significantly associated with thwarted belongingness, nor was there a significant main effect of self-transgressions on thwarted belongingness. This suggests that experiencing other-perpetrated morally injurious events (i.e., watching a fellow soldier die, being betrayed by a comrade) can be compounded by low post-deployment social support, increasing risk for thwarted belongingness. Implications for prevention and treatment are discussed.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 November 2016.
All research outputs
#20,689,064
of 31,078,525 outputs
Outputs from Psychiatry Research
#4,438
of 7,426 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#262,187
of 428,959 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Psychiatry Research
#94
of 165 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 31,078,525 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 31st percentile – i.e., 31% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,426 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.4. This one is in the 37th percentile – i.e., 37% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 428,959 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 36th percentile – i.e., 36% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 165 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
