Enjoying the Violence of War: Association With Posttraumatic Symptomatology in US Combat Veterans

Objective: Engaging in war-related violence can have a devastating impact on military personnel, with research suggesting that injuring or killing others can contribute to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and moral injury. However, there is also evidence that perpetrating violence in war can become pleasurable to a substantial number of combatants and that developing this "appetitive" form of aggression can diminish PTSD severity. Secondary analyses were conducted on data from a study of moral injury in U.S., Iraq, and Afghanistan combat veterans, to examine the impact of recognizing that one enjoyed war-related violence on outcomes of PTSD, depression, and trauma-related guilt. Method: Three multiple regression models evaluated the impact of endorsing the item, "I came to realize during the war that I enjoyed violence" on PTSD, depression, and trauma-related guilt, after controlling for age, gender, and combat exposure. Results: Results indicated that enjoying violence was positively associated with PTSD, beta (SE) = 15.86 (3.02), p< .001, depression, beta (SE) = 5.41 (0.98), p< .001, and guilt, beta (SE) = 0.20 (0.08), p< .05. Enjoying violence moderated the relationship between combat exposure and PTSD symptoms, beta (SE)= -0.28 (0.15), p< .05, such that there was a decrease in the strength of the relationship between combat exposure and PTSD in the presence of endorsing having enjoyed violence. Conclusions: Implications for understanding the impact of combat experiences on postdeployment adjustment, and for applying this understanding to effectively treating posttraumatic symptomatology, are discussed.