[1][2] A large body of research has previously linked low socioeconomic status to poor physical and mental health outcomes, including early mortality.
To account for this, the shift-and-persist model proposes that, as children, some individuals of low socioeconomic status learn adaptive strategies for regulating their emotions ("shifting") and focusing on their goals ("persisting") in the face of chronic adversity.
[1] According to this model, the use of shift-and-persist strategies diminishes the typical negative effects of adversity on health by leading to more adaptive biological, cognitive, and behavioral responses to daily stressors.
[12][13] The shift-and-persist model mainly hypothesizes that these strategies have protective effects for the health of low socioeconomic status individuals because they affect biological and physiological stress response tendencies that are relevant for disease.
[14][15] Specifically, reappraisal has been linked to a "healthier" pattern of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis response characterized by a rapid return to homeostasis (i.e., faster cortisol recovery) in the wake of a stressor.
[26][27] Another alternative, but not mutually exclusive hypothesis, is that shift-and-persist strategies affect health by increasing or up-regulating biological responses that enhance stress recovery and resilience.
[1] Emotion regulation abilities that are consistent with shift-coping have been linked to greater parasympathetic nervous system functioning at rest, as indexed by higher levels of high-frequency heart rate variability.
[1] Oxytocin is a hormone that has been linked to a wide range of positive social and emotional functions and can be used to effectively attenuate hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system responses to stress.
The majority of empirical studies on this topic test whether shift-and-persist strategies are associated with differential health outcomes in low vs. high socioeconomic status samples.