Service Members often describe their worst military-based traumas as the confrontation with unresolvable moral dilemmas that rattle their fundamental sense of self. Moral Injury is the debilitating syndrome that indexes the psychiatric and functional impairment associated with these military-based traumas. The objective of this study is to improve the measurement of the moral injury construct by evaluating two moral injury event questionnaires (i.e., Moral Injury Events Scale [MIES]1 and Moral Injury Questionnaire-Military Version [MIQM]2) and refining these instruments by creating new measures of moral injury events and mechanisms using items from the MIES and MIQM. This study will conduct secondary analysis on data from two longitudinal parent studies: a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Integrated Service Network 17 Center of Excellence (CoE) study of Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans (N = ~500) and a Department of Defense (DoD) Walter Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) study of active duty Soldiers (N = ~800). Data on the MIES and MIQM, along with a set of theoretically relevant predictors and outcomes, are being collected at two time points approximately eight months apart in the Veteran and Soldier samples, and will be ready to analyze by spring 2017 and spring 2018 for the Soldier and Veteran samples, respectively. This objective will be accomplished by pursuing three specific aims: 1) the occurrence of moral injury events and mechanisms will be assessed using item- level analysis of the MIES and MIQM; 2) the dimensionality of the MIES, MIQM, and new refined measures that disaggregate moral injury event and mechanism items on both measures will be tested using expert review, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and graded response (item response theory) analysis. The reliability and construct validity of the MIES, MIQM, and new measures of moral injury events and mechanisms will be evaluated using correlational coefficients, multiple regressions, and structural equation models. 3) Empirically driven recommendations for assessing moral injury events and mechanisms will be developed and disseminated throughout the VA and DoD. This Career Development Award -1 (CDA-1) will provide Dr. Frankfurt with the support needed to move her towards her career goal of being an independent VA clinical research scientist with a focus in military trauma-related sequelae including moral injury and aim to improve post-deployment reintegration. To achieve this goal, Dr. Frankfurt’s training plan includes VA psychology leadership training and professional development training. Specific training goals for the proposed CDA-1 include: (1) Mentorship in psychometrics, assessment, and measurement construction; (2) Mentorship in advanced interdisciplinary clinical and theoretical domains relevant to moral injury; and (3) Mentorship in project administration, grantsmanship, and research in the VA and DoD, and how to conduct research in...