Perceived injustice after spinal cord injury: evidence for a distinct psychological construct

Study design: Cross-sectional study. Objective: To identify unique predictors of perceived injustice compared with depression symptoms within the first year after SCI. Setting: Inpatient rehabilitation program in a large urban region in the Southwestern United States. Methods: A sample of 74 participants with median time since injury of 52 days completed measures of perceived injustice, depression symptoms, posttraumatic stress symptoms, expected disability, pain intensity, and anger. Results: Three unique predictors of perceived injustice as compared with depression symptoms were found—time since injury, state anger, and sex. These predictors had significantly different relationships with perceived injustice than with depression symptoms. Conclusions: Results replicate previous findings that perceived injustice is moderately correlated with depression symptoms. However, findings also reveal factors uniquely associated with perceived injustice than with depression symptoms, providing support that these are two separate constructs. Thus, these findings support development of novel interventions targeting perceptions of injustice.