MANIFESTATIONS OF MORAL INJURY SYMPTOMS IN MILITARY PERSONNEL AND CIVILIAN PERSONS IN THE WAR PERIOD

Abstract

The purpose of our research is a theoretical-empirical study of the symptoms of moral injury (MI) inthree groups: the civilian persons, military personnel participating in the protection of critical infrastructurefacilities, and active combatants during the full-scale Russian military invasion into Ukraine in 2022.Methods. They took part in the study students and teachers of the Lutsk Pedagogical College (n=105),teachers of secondary schools of Volyn region (n=6), service members of the National Guard of Ukraine(n=90) and pilots of the tactical aviation brigade (n=80), totally 281 persons, participated in the study. Themethods as follows were used in the study: questionnaires to determine the impact of post-traumatic stressdisorder (PTSD), (PCL-5), symptoms depression severity (Patient Health Questionnaire, PHG-9), anxietylevel (A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder, GAD-7) and moral trauma symptoms(Moral Injury Symptom Scale – Military Version Short Form, MISS-M-SF). The data were analyzed usingthe statistical method – one-factor analysis of ANOVA, SPSS v.24.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2016) variance. Results. MI is a construct expressing experiences because of actions that contradict the inner convictionsor the moral code of an individual. This type of injury is mostly studied in military personnel because theyperform combat tasks and are exposed to prolonged traumatic stress. Regardless of the specifics, there aremore studies of moral traumatization of the civilian persons, including medical personnel engaged with variouspatients. The results of our research indicate that the most morally traumatized persons are military personnelwho took part in and are participating in military operations (М=39,70, SD=10,50). The results indicate thatNational Guard soldiers have the lowest rates of moral injury (M=29,94, SD=9,29). This may be because theyguard critical infrastructure facilities and the state border in places where active hostilities are not taking place.Conclusions. The results of the study indicate that МI during full-scale Russian military invasion intoUkraine is not only received by military personnel performing combat tasks, but also by the civilian persons,since civilians were not prepared psychologically before the start of the war.