Traumatology, Vol 29(1), Mar 2023, 1-5; doi:10.1037/trm0000361
Religion can influence recovery from the many stressors and traumas that may occur during war-zone service. On the one hand, religious faith might provide an array of resources for healthy coping and relational connections. However, military trauma can also affect veterans spiritually in ways that lead to conflict and struggles in this cultural domain. In this brief report, a sample of 225 war-zone veterans from the post-9/11 era who screened positive for spiritual struggle completed Worthington et al.’s (2003) Religious Commitment Inventory on the basis of religious beliefs, practices, and relationships before serving in the military and according to the present time. In addition, veterans completed validated assessments of symptomatology related to posttraumatic stress disorder, moral injury, and spiritual struggles. The present religious commitment was not associated with any of these posttraumatic outcomes at the time of the study. In contrast, veterans’ premilitary religious commitment was uniquely linked with worse outcome across bivariate and multivariate analyses. Other analyses revealed a general weakening of religious commitment. In combination, these findings underscore the value of assuming a process-oriented view in conceptualizing religious identity in veterans who are struggling to heal emotionally, relationally, and spiritually from war-related traumas. Looking ahead, research will ideally disentangle the role of religious approaches to spirituality and dynamics of changes in religious identity among war-zone veterans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)