This research note advances the religious coping literature by testing whether belief in an evil world conditions the stress-moderating role of scripture reading. Hypotheses are tested with original data from a survey of black, Hispanic, and white American churchgoers from South Texas (2017–2018; n = 1,115). Our findings show that reading scripture for insights into the future attenuates the positive association between major life events and psychological distress, but only for congregants who do not believe the world is fundamentally evil and sinful. For congregants who believe the world is evil, scripture reading amplifies the association between life events and distress. Whether scriptural coping is beneficial for mental health could be contingent on a believer's broader assumptions about the nature of the world we live in.

中文翻译：

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应对邪恶世界：将读经的压力缓冲作用情境化

本研究笔记通过测试对邪恶世界的信仰是否会影响经文阅读的压力调节作用，从而推进了宗教应对文献。假设使用来自德克萨斯州南部（2017-2018 年；n = 1,115）的黑人、西班牙裔和白人美国教堂信徒调查的原始数据进行检验。我们的研究结果表明，阅读经文以洞察未来会减弱重大生活事件与心理困扰之间的积极联系，但仅适用于不相信世界从根本上是邪恶和有罪的会众。对于相信世界是邪恶的会众来说，读经可以放大生活事件与痛苦之间的关联。圣经应对是否有益于心理健康，可能取决于信徒对我们生活的世界性质的更广泛假设。