Moral Injury, Social Support, and Psychological Wellbeing in Nigerian Military Veterans

Abstract

This research examined psychological wellbeing among military veterans deployed for insurgency operation in Borno state. The aim of the research is to determine the independent and joint prediction of moral injury and social support on psychological wellbeing of the veterans. The design adopted was a cross-sectional survey. 324 participants were purposively sampled from military barracks in Biu and other locations across Borno State. Instruments administered were psychological measures of moral injury, social support scale, and psychological wellbeing scale. Three hypotheses were generated and tested using simple linear and multiple regression at p<.05 level of significance. Result indicated no significant prediction of moral injury on psychological wellbeing, while social support emerged as a significant predictor of psychological wellbeing. Also, moral injury and social support were found to have significant joint prediction on psychological wellbeing of the veterans. These findings have revealed the significance of social support in improving veterans’ psychological wellbeing. Therefore, we recommend that adequate social support that are easily accessible should be provided for these veteran so as to enhance their psychological wellbeing.