Moral injury, traumatic stress, and threats to core human needs in health-care workers: The COVID-19 pandemic as a dehumanizing experience
Clinical Psychological Science
; 10(6):1060-1082, 2022.
Article
in English
| APA PsycInfo | ID: covidwho-2261848
ABSTRACT
The pandemic has threatened core human needs. The pandemic provides a context to study psychological injury as it relates to unmet basic human needs and traumatic stressors, including moral incongruence. We surveyed 1,122 health-care workers from across the United States between May 2020 and August 2020. Using a mixed-methods design, we examined moral injury and unmet basic human needs in relation to traumatic stress and suicidality. Nearly one third of respondents reported elevated symptoms of psychological trauma, and the prevalence of suicidal ideation among health-care workers in our sample was roughly 3 times higher than in the general population. Moral injury and loneliness predict greater symptoms of traumatic stress and suicidality. We conclude that dehumanization is a driving force behind the psychological injury resulting from moral incongruence in the context of the pandemic. The pandemic most frequently threatened basic human motivations at the foundational level of safety and security relative to other higher order needs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
COVID-19 pandemic; posttraumatic stress disorder; PTSD; moral injury; health-care workers; stress; suicide; loneliness, *Pandemics, *Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, *Posttraumatic Stress, *Moral Injury, *covid-19, Loneliness, Stress, Threat, Health Psychology & Medicine [3360], Human Male Female Adulthood (18 yrs & older), us
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
APA PsycInfo
Language:
English
Journal:
Clinical Psychological Science
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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