RESUMEN
The concept of moral injury, referring to the psychological impact of having one's moral expectations and beliefs violated, is gaining a firm place in research on military trauma. Yet, although moral injury has the recognized potential to extend the understanding of trauma beyond the individualizing and pathologizing focus of the clinical realm, most studies nevertheless focus on clinical assessment, diagnosis and treatment. This review aims to contribute to a better understanding of contextual dimensions of moral injury. To this end, it complements current theory on moral injury with a systematic review of literature relevant to contextual factors in moral injury. It draws together insights from psychology, philosophy, theology and social sciences into spiritual/existential, organizational, political and societal dimensions of moral injury. Thus an interdisciplinary theoretical foundation is created for context-sensitive research and interventions.
RESUMEN
The aim of this article is to review the scientific literature on making sense of war and peacekeeping experiences, and it includes an analysis of empirical studies that examine appraisals of military deployment experiences among veterans. Veterans reported more positive than negative effects in the studies of this review. Furthermore, construing positive meaning from war and peacekeeping experiences, especially related to combat exposure or high perceived threat, is associated with better psychological adjustment. More insight on "normal" psychological processing of stressful and traumatic experiences is obtained when the concept of meaning is used in research. This perspective emphasizes the perception of individuals and focuses on beliefs and attitudes in making sense of threatening events instead of pathologizing the response to trauma.
