Browsing by Author "Frankfurt, Sheila"

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    An Empirical Investigation of Moral Injury in Combat Veterans
    (2015-09) Frankfurt, Sheila
    The moral injury construct was proposed to identify and describe the deleterious impact of engaging in acts that transgress accepted boundaries of behavior during combat and that challenge one’s sense of self as a good person. These acts, labeled “transgressive acts,” are proposed to lead to a guilt and shame-based syndrome of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, demoralization, self-handicapping, and self-injury. Although the moral injury construct has been gaining clinical and popular attention in recent years, little empirical research on a frequently cited model of moral injury (Litz et al., 2009) has been conducted. The current study tested key tenets of this moral injury model using structural equation modeling (SEM) in a sample of combat-exposed male veterans (N = 190). Findings supported some assertions of this moral injury model. SEM supported the direct effect of transgressive acts on guilt, and the indirect effect of transgressive acts on suicidality and demoralization through guilt. An alternative configuration of moral injury wherein demoralization was a mechanism (not outcome) of moral injury fit the data adequately; transgressive acts had an indirect effect through demoralization on suicidality and PTSD. Limitations of the study include the use of cross-sectional data and limited measures of moral injury mechanisms and outcomes. We conclude with implications for future research for veterans experiencing moral injury.
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    Identifying change trajectories using latent variable growth modeling: a primer
    (2015-03) Frankfurt, Sheila
    Many issues of interest to counseling psychologists involve questions regarding how individuals change over time. Typically, these analyses examine average levels of change over time in a sample. However, statistical methods known as latent variable growth modeling (LVGM; Muthen, 2004) allow researchers to more fully understand individual differences in change trajectories and may lead to fundamentally different understanding of change over time. The purpose of this paper is to provide a lay person's guide to LVGM in an effort to increase the use of these methods by counseling psychology researchers. In this paper, we discuss the differing conceptual frameworks from which conventional modeling techniques and LVGM techniques are drawn: variable-centered and person-centered frameworks, respectively. We next illustrate the assumptions and limitations of conventional analytic techniques and contrast these to the assumptions and limitations of LVGM. We then discuss three specific types of LVGM (latent class growth analysis, latent growth mixture modeling, and dual trajectory modeling), and provide a detailed example of latent class growth analysis using data from a longitudinal study of distress in recent sexual assault survivors. We conclude with suggestions for other areas of counseling psychology research that may benefit from the use of LVGM methods.