Moderating role of moral injury in the mental health of adolescent refugees.

Objective: This study investigated whether moral injury appraisals moderated the relationships between trauma, postmigration living difficulties, resilience, and mental health outcomes in adolescent refugees. Method: Eighty‐five adolescent refugees from a community sample completed an online survey. Results: A significant interaction was found between moral injury and discrimination for externalizing and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms; adolescents whom had experienced high levels of discrimination combined with high levels of moral injury had poorer mental health. A significant interaction was found between moral injury and resilience for internalizing symptoms: high levels of resilience appeared to buffer the association between moral injury and internalizing symptoms. Contrary to predictions, stressful life experiences and postmigration living difficulties did not interact significantly with moral injury to predict mental health. Conclusions: Discrimination may contribute to perpetuating poor mental health in adolescent refugees with high levels of moral injury. Resilience may buffer some of the negative effects of moral injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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