Do betrayal-based moral injury and drinking to cope explain the association between military sexual trauma and alcohol consumption?

The present study examined two sequential mediation models in which betrayal-based moral injury and drinking to cope were hypothesized to explain the associations between sexual assault/sexual harassment and alcohol consumption. Participants were a community sample of 93 current or former U.S. military women (30.4 years; SD = 8.01) who completed an online, anonymous survey. In both models, sexual assault and sexual harassment and alcohol consumption were explained by betrayal-based moral injury and drinking to cope. It may be important to assess for and therapeutically address betrayal-based moral injury as it may be a mechanism that drives alcohol consumption.