Moral injury in veterans: how common it is and how it affects life
Official title: The Prevalence and Functional Impact of Moral Injury in Veterans
Funded at VA Boston Health Care System · NIH-11400856 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project finds out how often U.S. veterans experience moral injury and how those experiences affect their mental health, behavior, and daily functioning.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | VA Boston Health Care System NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | April 1, 2023 |
| Project end | September 30, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| NIH project number | 5I01RX003915-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11400856 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are U.S. military veterans who have experienced or witnessed events that may have conflicted with their moral beliefs, and who are willing to complete surveys and clinical measures.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not veterans or who have no exposure to potentially morally injurious events are unlikely to receive direct benefit from this project, and participants should not expect immediate treatment benefits from enrollment.
What this research studies
You may be asked to complete surveys and clinical measures about events that conflicted with your moral beliefs and how those events have affected your mood, behavior, relationships, and daily life. The team will use the Moral Injury Outcome Scale and other clinical tools to identify what symptom levels are likely to cause real-life problems. They will estimate how common different types of morally injurious events are across U.S. veterans and look for factors that increase risk or promote resilience. The goal is to define clinically meaningful moral injury and describe veterans' needs so clinicians can better recognize and help those affected.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help clinicians identify veterans with clinically significant moral injury and guide better-targeted care and resources.
How similar studies have gone: Research on moral injury is relatively new: prior studies show links between morally injurious events and distress but there is no widely accepted definition or gold-standard clinical measure yet.
Where this research is happening
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VA Boston Health Care System
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Ferguson, Ryan E. — VA Boston Health Care System
- Study coordinator: Ferguson, Ryan E.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.