ArticleJournal of personality2026
World Beliefs Moderate the Effects of Trauma and Severe Illness on Emotional Distress.
Article in Journal of personality, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- World Beliefs Moderate the Effects of Trauma and Severe Illness on Emotional Distress.Journal of personality · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveSevere illness and trauma can cause significant psychological distress, but individuals differ in their responses. This research tested whether world beliefs-fundamental assumptions about the nature of the world-moderate the relationship between negative life experiences and emotional distress.
methodStudy 1 compared individuals with chronic illnesses (cystic fibrosis or cancer) to healthy controls on measures of anxiety, depression, and world beliefs. Study 2 analyzed longitudinal data from university students assessed before and after a campus mass shooting, focusing on the Safe world belief as a moderator of stress.
resultsIn Study 1, people with chronic illness showed substantially higher anxiety and depression than controls at low levels of Improvable, Regenerative, and Just world beliefs, but did not differ at high levels of those beliefs. In Study 2, students low in Safe belief reported increased stress both shortly after and 4 months after the shooting, while those high in Safe belief showed no increases. Other positive world beliefs were less effective moderators.
conclusionsWorld beliefs appear to buffer individuals from emotional distress following severe illness or trauma. Further, the specific content of these beliefs, as well as their valence, appears important for emotional resilience.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.