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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV1010

From trauma to growth: The moderating role of moral injury in the relationship between PTSD and posttraumatic growth

FROM TRAUMA TO GROWTH - THE MODERATING ROLE OF MORAL INJURY BETWEEN PTSD AND PTG

PTSD symptoms were positively associated with posttraumatic growth only among those with low levels of moral injury; among those with high levels of moral injury, growth scores remained low regardless of PTSD severity.

The aim was to examine the moderating role of moral injury (MI) in the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and posttraumatic growth (PTG). In terms of methodology, 1,196 Israeli participants exposed to the October 7 attacks and the subsequent war were assessed using measures of exposure to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs), moral injury symptoms (MIOS), PTSD symptoms (PCL-5), and posttraumatic growth (PTGI). A two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted according to MIOS (low and high) and PCL (low and high) levels, controlling for age and gender. Of the sample, 56.02% (n = 670) reported moderate or greater endorsement of at least one PMIE item, indicating exposure to a morally injurious event. Posttraumatic growth was higher among those with low levels of moral injury symptoms than among those with high levels, F(1, 1186) = 13.06, p < 0.001, eta squared = 0.012. The main effect of PTSD symptom severity was also significant, with higher PTSD symptoms associated with higher growth scores (the poster text reports F(1, 1186) = 13.03 and eta squared = 0.011, while the poster table reports F = 11.08 and eta squared = 0.010; p < 0.001 in both). The interaction between moral injury and PTSD was significant, F(1, 1186) = 8.08, p = 0.005, eta squared = 0.007; in the low-MIOS group, mean PTGI scores were 22.67 (SD 12; n = 406) for low PCL and 26.98 (SD 10.30; n = 175) for high PCL, whereas in the high-MIOS group, the corresponding scores were 22.20 (SD 10.59; n = 169) and 22.54 (SD 9.83; n = 371), respectively (for age, F = 4.818, p = 0.028; for gender, F = 1.15, p = 0.285). In conclusion, the findings emphasize that interventions targeting posttraumatic growth may remain limited unless moral injuries and their emotional and psychological consequences are addressed. Limitations include the cross-sectional design, which precludes causal inference, the treatment-seeking sample, reliance on self-report measures, and the cultural context, which may limit generalizability.

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