Content uploaded by N. Keita Christophe
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by N. Keita Christophe on Oct 07, 2019
Content may be subject to copyright.
Running Head: COPING AND CULTURE 1
Coping and Culture: The Protective Effects of Shift-&-persist and Ethnic-racial Identity on
Depressive Symptoms in Latinx Youth
N. Keita Christophe1, Gabriela L. Stein1, Michelle Y. Martin Romero2, Michele Chan1,
Michaeline Jensen1, Laura M. Gonzalez1, & Lisa Kiang3
1The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
2The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
3Wake Forest University
This is an accepted manuscript (postprint) of the article:
Christophe, N. K., Stein, G. L., Martin Romero, M. Y., Chan, M., Jensen, M., Gonzalez, L. M.,
& Kiang, L. (2019). Coping and culture: The protective effects of shift-&-persist and
ethnic-racial identity on depressive symptoms in Latinx youth. Journal of Youth and
Adolescence, 48(8), 1592–1604. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01037-8
Copyright: Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
COPING AND CULTURE 2
Abstract
Shift-&-persist is a coping strategy that has been shown to lead to positive health
outcomes in low-SES youth but has not yet been examined with respect to psychological health.
This study tests whether the shift-&-persist coping strategy works in tandem with ethnic-racial
identity to protect against depressive symptoms in the face of two uncontrollable stressors:
economic hardship and peer discrimination. In a sample of 175 Latinx youth (51.4% female;
Mage=12.9), shift-&-persist buffered the positive relation between economic hardship and
depressive symptoms. In terms of peer discrimination, among youth who reported little use of
shift and persist, discrimination was related to higher depressive symptoms, whereas youth who
reported higher amounts of shift and persist (at and above the mean) were protected and did not
evidence this association. However, among youth with high ethnic-racial identity, shift-&-persist
failed to protect against the deleterious association between peer discrimination and depressive
symptoms. These findings suggest that shift-&-persist is protective for Latinx youth, although
the context in which it is protective changes based on the racialized/non-racialized nature of the
stressor.
Keywords: Shift-&-persist, Ethnic-racial identity, Discrimination, Latinx youth
COPING AND CULTURE 3
Introduction
Latinx youth living in the United States typically experience mental health disparities
relative to other racial/ethnic groups, including greater numbers of depressive symptoms
(Twenge & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2002). At the same time, Latinx youth in immigrant families face
a variety of stressors (i.e., ethnic-racial discrimination; economic stress) that contribute to
psychological risk (Stein, Gonzalez, & Huq, 2012). Given these disparities, it is essential to
identify what factors can mitigate the negative effects of stressors in this growing population as
25% of the U.S. population will be Latinx by the year 2060 (Colby & Ortman, 2014). A
burgeoning literature highlights promotive and protective factors that limit the impact of these
stressors on development and focuses primarily on ethnic-racial identity processes (Neblett,
Rivas-Drake, & Umana-Taylor, 2012). Health disparities research has led to the identification of
a coping strategy, termed shift-&-persist, that mitigates the negative effects of low
socioeconomic status (SES) on a variety of health outcomes (E. Chen & Miller, 2012). It is
posited that when low-SES youth shift (i.e., cognitively reappraise and accept uncontrollable life
stressors) and persist (i.e., find meaning in life and hold positive beliefs about the future), these
processes minimize the impact of uncontrollable life stressors such as poverty on health
outcomes due to better regulation of the stress response system (E. Chen & Miller, 2012).
Despite promising findings related to physical health, shift-&-persist processes have not
yet been tested with psychological outcomes like depressive symptoms, and only one other study
examined discrimination as the uncontrollable life stressor (Lam et al., 2018). Further, no past
studies of shift-&-persist in minoritized populations considered how shift-&-persist processes
intersect with ethnic-racial identity processes that are critical to positive psychosocial adjustment
for minoritized adolescents. Adolescence is a pivotal period where ethnic-racial identity begins
COPING AND CULTURE 4
to solidify and where youth are able to employ increasingly complex coping strategies to combat
life stressors (Rivas-Drake et al., 2014). Specifically, as youth transition into adolescence they
increasingly eschew behavioral coping strategies such as physical escape and avoidance and
become increasingly reliant on more complex cognitive coping strategies, using them as a first
line of defense in attempting to deal with life stressors (Compas et al., 2017). It is therefore
important to understand how cognitively-based coping strategies such as shift-&-persist and
culturally protective factors such as ethnic-racial identity coalesce during this key developmental
period to protect against stressors and facilitate positive psychosocial adjustment. To fill these
gaps in the literature, this study tested how the shift-and-persist coping strategy interacts with
ethnic-racial identity in predicting depressive symptoms in a sample of Latinx youth. This study
examined whether the protective effects of shift-&-persist and ethnic-racial identity are evident
in the face of two stressors: economic hardship, commonly examined in shift-&-persist work,
and peer discrimination, a racialized stressor that which exerts harms over and above economic
hardship (Stein et al., 2012).
Shift-&-Persist in Response to Stressors
Shift-&-persist theory centers on the physiological and psychological benefits of
secondary coping responses in the face of uncontrollable stressors that are enhanced in
conjunction with an ability to find meaning and hope in aspects of life (E. Chen & Miller, 2012).
This set of responses is hypothesized to positively impact both acute and long-term biological
and psychological reactivity to stress ultimately leading to positive health outcomes.
Specifically, shifting, or cognitively reappraising stressful situations is posited to reduce
inflammation, one of the human body’s acute responses to stress, and cardiovascular responses
to stress. This lower physiological reactivity that comes from shifting is theorized to, over time,
COPING AND CULTURE 5
decrease the likelihood of cardiovascular disease and its associated risk factors such as high
blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides (E. Chen & Miller, 2012). Additionally,
maintaining optimism and endorsing a sense of meaning or purpose in life, also known as
persisting, can help individuals appraise stressors as less threatening and find hope, stay strong,
and adapt when faced with aversity, all of which may lead to more adaptive responses to stress
and lower cardiovascular disease risk (E. Chen, 2012).
Past work on shift-&-persist suggests that low SES youth, who often have minimal
control over their life stressors, may benefit most from using shift-&-persist, whereas higher SES
youth with more control over their life stressors may benefit more from active, primary coping
strategies (E. Chen & Miller, 2012). Supporting this notion, in a study of 121 youth diagnosed
with asthma, shift-&-persist moderated the relation between SES and asthma outcomes such that
low-SES youth who endorsed shift-&-persist strategies had less asthma inflammation at baseline
as well as fewer missed school days and less rescue inhaler use at a 6-month follow-up relative
to high-SES youth who did not benefit from shift-&-persist strategies (E. Chen et al., 2011).
Another cross-sectional study of 122 adolescents and their parents found that shift-&-persist was
associated with lower levels of chronic inflammation markers, C-reactive protein and Inter
leukin-6 (IL-6), for low-SES youth but not high SES youth (E. Chen, McLean, & Miller, 2015).
Finally, in a study of 1,523 middle school children, low SES was associated with high BMI
scores for those low in shift-&-persist, but there was no association between SES and BMI for
those high in shift-&-persist, implying that shift-&-persist is protective against obesity for low-
SES youth (Kallem et al., 2013). These findings support Chen’s (2012) assertion that the
combination of shifting and persisting leads to better physiological outcomes than either strategy
in isolation because shift-&-persist is “postulated to represent a good fit with the environmental
COPING AND CULTURE 6
constraints that often affect those low in SES” (p.191). This means that, theoretically, cognitively
shifting attention away from uncontrollable stressors or reframing them, combined with
maintaining optimism and hope for the future theoretically produces better health outcomes than
would either shifting or persisting in isolation.
Although shift-&-persist is associated with positive physical health outcomes such as
lower inflammation (E. Chen et al., 2015), a steeper decline in diurnal cortisol (L. Chen et al.,
2019), and a lower body mass index (Kallem et al., 2013) in low-SES youth, research has just
begun to examine whether the shift-&-persist coping strategy works in response to other types of
uncontrollable stressors, such as unfair treatment. In a sample of 308 youth diagnosed with
asthma, shift-&-persist moderated the relationship between unfair treatment and asthma profiles
(control, quality of life, and daily symptoms) such that shift-&-persist was associated with better
asthma profiles for those who reported high levels of discrimination (Lam et al., 2018). These
results mirror what has been found with low-SES youth, giving preliminary evidence that the
shift-&-persist strategy may be protective in response to multiple types of uncontrollable
stressors. More research is needed, however, to determine whether the mechanisms by which
shift-&-persist is protective remain the same across stressors for a mental health outcome like
depressive symptoms. Although Chen and Miller (2012) highlight research showing the
psychological benefit of cognitive reappraisal and meaning in life in isolation and go on to
propose that the shift-&-persist coping strategy is beneficial for youths’ psychological and
physical well-being, research has not yet tested whether shift-&-persist moderates the link
between uncontrollable stressors and negative mental health outcomes. This need is compounded
by a large body of work showing strong relationships between uncontrollable stressors such as
discrimination and depressive symptoms in minoritized youth (e.g., Benner et al., 2018).
COPING AND CULTURE 7
Ethnic-racial Identity
Ethnic-racial identity is a multidimensional construct that refers to the beliefs, attitudes,
and behaviors endorsed and engaged in by youth related to their ethnic-racial group membership
(Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014). Two important aspects of ethnic-racial identity moderate the
relation between discrimination and youths’ psychosocial adjustment: centrality (the how
important race is in one’s self-concept), and private regard (the positive or negative feelings
towards one’s ethnic-racial group;Sellers et al., 2006). Because minoritized youth are
overrepresented in low-SES communities and face additional uncontrollable stressors such as
ethnic-racial discrimination (Pahl & Way, 2006) in addition to economic stressors (Mroczkowski
& Snchez, 2015), it is paramount to utilize samples of minoritized youth to better understand
how cultural protective factors such as ethnic-racial identity may protect youth from negative
psychosocial outcomes in the face of different types of stressors.
In trying to better understand the factors that foster resilience in minoritized youth, it is
important to investigate how ethnic-racial identity may interact with coping strategies such as
shift-&-persist. Ethnic-racial identity is, on its own, often conceptualized as a resource that
enables minoritized youth to cope with culturally-based stressors (Neblett et al., 2012). It is
argued that youth with stronger ethnic-racial identities develop more effective coping skills
because they have taken more time to think about and process issues related to race and ethnicity
such as ethnic-racial discrimination (Sellers & Shelton, 2003). Past research provides
preliminary support for this argument. For example, higher levels of ethnic-racial identity were
positively correlated to secondary coping among a diverse sample of 5,423 youth, including
those of African-American (23%) and Latinx (19%) backgrounds (Roberts et al., 1999).
Similarly, higher ethnic-racial identity scores were associated with secondary coping strategies
COPING AND CULTURE 8
(e.g., cognitive restructuring) among a sample of 67 African-American seventh grade students
(Zaff, Blount, Phillips, & Cohen, 2002). In a study of Latinx youth, Umaña-Taylor and
colleagues (2008) found that aspects of ethnic-racial identity were associated with using more
primary, proactive coping strategies, although these proactive coping strategies did not mediate
the relation between identity and self-esteem across time. Conversely, Seaton and colleagues
(2014) found that avoidant coping partially mediates the relation between discrimination and
depressive symptoms in a sample of Black youth. This pathway from avoidant coping to
depressive symptoms was moderated by identity status, where Black youth espousing an
oppressed minoritized ideology reported the strongest relations between avoidant coping and
depressive symptoms. Thus, ethnic-racial identity processes serve an important role in the
relation between discrimination and depressive symptoms, warranting further investigation.
While there is not currently robust empirical support for relations between ethnic-racial
identity, coping, and psychosocial outcomes, the claim that ethnic-racial identity interacts with
coping in facilitating positive development in minoritized youth is supported by strong
theoretical models such as Spencer and colleagues’ (1997) Phenomenological Variant of
Ecological Systems Theory and Neblett and colleagues’ (2012) conceptual model of youth
protective factors. Neblett and colleagues’ model specifically proposes bidirectional relations
between identity and coping processes that then disrupt the relation between ethnic-racial
discrimination and negative youth adjustment. In this way, there is emerging theoretical evidence
that coping may be enhanced by ethnic-racial identity, and vice versa, meaning that both are,
therefore, crucial in fostering resilience in minoritized youth.
In addition to coping more broadly, meaning in life – a critical component of shift-&-
persist – may also be enhanced by the protective effects of ethnic-racial identity. Meaning in life
COPING AND CULTURE 9
encompasses two distinct subcomponents that revolve around (1) viewing one’s life as
meaningful or filled with purpose (i.e., presence of meaning), and (2) actively seeking out and
exploring meaning in life (i.e., search for meaning; Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler, 2006).
Conceptualized as a developmental asset for youth (Burrow, O’Dell, & Hill, 2010), higher levels
of meaning in life have been linked to better psychological health (Brassai, Piko, & Steger,
2011), greater life satisfaction (Ho, Cheung, & Cheung, 2010), and greater positive affect (King,
Hicks, Krull, & Del Gaiso, 2006). Minoritized youth, as a function of their membership in a
marginalized group, may have even greater motivation or reason to develop a strong meaning or
purpose in life (Sumner, Burrow, & Hill, 2018). This notion coincides with work finding that, for
minoritized youth, the process of developing one’s ethnic-racial identity (e.g., exploring one’s
ethnic/racial background; building ethnic/racial pride) fosters a sense of purpose or meaning in
life (Kiang & Fuligni, 2010). Indeed, findings from previous research suggest that a clear
association exists between meaning in life and ethnic-racial identity. For instance, in a sample of
diverse 12th graders (36% Latinx), meaning in life correlated with ethnic-racial identity such that
adolescents with higher identity endorsement reported greater levels of meaning in life in
addition to more positive daily well-being and fewer feelings of daily distress (Kiang & Fuligni,
2010). These findings thus underscore the relevance of ethnic-racial identity in the context of
shift-&-persist and suggest that they may be synergistically related to positive adaptation in the
face of stress, especially for depressive symptoms.
Taken together, although both coping and meaning in life are associated with ethnic-
racial identity, no work has focused on how their role as part of a shift-&-persist coping strategy
intersects with identity processes and different types of uncontrollable stressors. Shift-&-persist
processes may operate similarly in Latinx samples in the face of universal stressors like
COPING AND CULTURE 10
economic hardship, but shift-&-persist may fail to confer the same benefits when youth face
culturally-based, uncontrollable stressors such as discrimination. For these types of stressors,
ethnic or racially-based processes may be an important additional resource to mitigate the impact
these stressors have on depressive symptoms (Neblett et al., 2012). Supporting this notion, the
relation between economic stress and depressive symptoms has been moderated by a negative
attributional style in a sample of Latinx youth whereby negative attributional style was
associated with greater depressive symptoms in the context of high economic stress. This
relation, however, did not hold for culturally-based stressors (Stein et al., 2012). Taken together,
these findings suggest that culturally-protective processes like ethnic-racial identity and effective
coping processes such as shift-&-persist may both be needed to produce optimal psychological
well-being in minoritized youth. However, the precise independent and potentially interactive
effects of these variables have yet to be determined.
Current Study
The current study was derived from a larger project broadly examining factors impacting
the psychosocial wellbeing of Latinx mother-child dyads in an emerging immigrant community
in rural North Carolina. The current study extends the literature on both the shift-&-persist
construct and resilience in Latinx youth in three ways. First, by testing whether shift-&-persist
processes protect against a primary psychological outcome relevant for adolescents (i.e.,
depressive symptoms). Second, by examining two uncontrollable stressors (i.e., economic stress
and peer discrimination). Third, by testing whether shift-&-persist and ethnic-racial identity
processes work differentially based on type of stressor (i.e., economic vs. culturally-based) in a
predominantly low-income sample of primarily U.S-born Latinx youth in immigrant families.
COPING AND CULTURE 11
Economic stress has the potential to negatively affect all youth regardless of ethnic or
racial background. Thus, it was hypothesized that shift-&-persist would protect against
depressive symptoms in the face of high economic hardship, whereas the three-way interaction
between shift-&-persist, ethnic-racial identity, and economic stress would not be significant
(Hypothesis 1). Because cultural protective factors are likely more important when youth are
faced with culturally-based stressors such as ethnic-racial discrimination (Neblett et al., 2012), it
was hypothesized that the three-way interaction between shift-&-persist, ethnic-racial identity,
and discrimination would be significant such that high shift-&-persist and identity would be
associated with the fewest depressive symptoms in the face of high levels of discrimination
(Hypothesis 2). Because shift-&-persist and ethnic-racial identity were hypothesized to work in
tandem (e.g. high identity and high shift-&-persist are together associated with the best outcomes
in the context of ethnic-racial discrimination), significant two-way interactions between ethnic
identity and economic hardship or discrimination were not expected.
Method
Participants
Participants were 175 Latinx adolescents (51.4% female; 48.6% male) recruited from two
middle schools in a rural emerging immigrant community in North Carolina. These adolescents
were 12.9 years of age on average (range = 10 – 15 years), and 86% reported being born in the
U.S. For those not born in the U.S., the average age of immigration was 4.25 years old (range = 0
– 12 years). The median annual household income for this sample was $24,999.50, with 80.8%
of households earning $30,000 or less. Participants were recruited in the summers of 2013, 2014,
and 2015.
Procedure
COPING AND CULTURE 12
After receiving IRB approval, participants were recruited using call lists of 7th and 8th
grade students at two rural middle schools in an emerging immigrant community in North
Carolina. Trained research assistants visited the homes of eligible families, obtained consent
from parents, assent from the adolescents, and used computers supplied by the research team to
administer questionnaires in English or Spanish depending on the adolescent’s language
preferences (only 2 completed in Spanish). Assessment took approximately two hours to
complete and adolescents received a $10 gift card for their participation (see Author cite, 2018
for detailed methods).
Measures
Shift-&-persist. Based on past theoretical work suggesting that shift and persist have the
greatest impact when working in tandem and as done in previous research (Lam et al., 2018),
items from two different measures were combined to create a measure of shift-&-persist. Eight
items from the positive reinterpretation and growth and the acceptance subscales of the COPE
inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) and five items from the presence subscale of the
Meaning in Life questionnaire (Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler, 2006) were used to capture the
shift-&-persist construct. Sample items from the COPE include “I look for something good in
what is happening” and “I learn to live with it” while sample items from the Meaning in Life
questionnaire include “My life has a clear sense of purpose” and “I have a good sense of what
makes my life meaningful.” To further validate this measure, a principal components analysis
with an oblique rotation requesting two components, one for shift and one for persist, was
conducted (see supplemental materials for more information). This measure of shift-&-persist
closely mirrored the most current measure of shift-&-persist created by Lam and colleagues
(2018), which included sample items such as “I feel useful in life” and “when something doesn’t
COPING AND CULTURE 13
turn out the way I want, I think about what good things could come from the situation.” Similar
to past work, summary scores of shift and persist, which were significantly positively correlated
with each other (r = .28, p < .001) were standardized and averaged together so that higher scores
indicated more use of the shift-&-persist coping strategy (Mello, Wiebe, & Berg, 2019). This
scale demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .80).
Ethnic-racial identity. Ethnic-racial identity was assessed using the centrality and
private regard subscales of a modified version of the Multidimensional Inventory of Black
Identity (MIBI: Sellers et al., 1998). Items in this measure, which has been previously adapted
for use in Latinx populations (Kiang, Yip, Gonzales-Backen, Witkow, & Fuligni, 2006), were
changed from being specific to the Black experience (e.g. “I have a strong sense of belonging to
Black people”) to items applicable across ethnic groups within the Latinx community (e.g. “I
have a strong sense of belonging to my ethnic group). These 8 items were rated on a 5-point
scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with higher scores indicating stronger
levels of identity. Consistent with past work by Kiang and Witkow (2018), and due to a strong
positive correlation (r = .82, p < .001), the centrality and private regard subscales were averaged
to create a composite variable measuring ethnic-racial identity. The composite showed good
internal consistency (α =.92).
Economic hardship. Perceived economic hardship was assessed using the Not Enough
Money for Necessities subscale of the Psychological Sense of Economic Hardship scale
(Barrera, Caples, & Tein, 2001). Youth responded to this 7-item subscale on a scale from 1
(strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree), with higher numbers representing greater economic
hardship. Sample items include “my family had enough money to afford leisure and recreational
COPING AND CULTURE 14
activities,” and “we had enough money to afford the kind of food we should have.” This subscale
displayed good internal consistency (α = .92).
Peer school-based discrimination. Peer discrimination was assessed using a 7-item
adapted version of the school-based discrimination peer subscale (Way, 1997). On this measure,
youth rate how often they have experienced different types of mistreatment due to their
ethnicity/race (e.g. being treated with less respect; being insulted or called names) on a scale
from 1 (never) to 5 (all the time). This scale showed good internal consistency (α = .87).
Youth depressive symptoms. Youth depressive symptoms were assessed using the
Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ; Angold et al., 1995). Youth responded to this 33-item
scale by indicating how often certain statements applied to them recently on a scale from 0 (not
true) to 2 (mostly true). Scores were added to form a summary score, with higher numbers
indicating a greater number of endorsed depressive symptoms. Sample items include “I felt
lonely” and “I felt miserable or unhappy.” This scale showed good internal consistency (α = .94).
Results
Data Analytic Plan and Descriptives
Primary study hypotheses were tested using two separate regression models within the
structural equation modeling framework. The first model included economic hardship, shift-&-
persist, and ethnic-racial identity as exogenous variables. The second set of analyses included
peer discrimination, shift-&-persist, and ethnic-racial identity as exogenous variables. These
models were run separately due to proposed differences in how identity interacts with economic
hardship, a general stressor, and discrimination, a culturally-based stressor. This approach is
consistent with past work testing the impact of culturally-based and non-culturally-based
stressors (Stein et al., 2012). The shift-&-persist model included main effects and a two-way
COPING AND CULTURE 15
interaction between a stressor (economic hardship or discrimination) and the moderator (shift-&-
persist). The shift-&-persist + identity model included the main effects, all the two-way
interactions, and the 3-way interaction between the stressor, shift-&-persist, and ethnic-racial
identity
1
. We also tested these models with age, gender, and parental income as covariates, but
the inclusion of these variables did not significantly alter the results nor the interpretations and
thus were removed for greater parsimony. All data were analyzed using Mplus version 8.1,
which does not use stepwise or hierarchical regression procedures but rather enters predictor
variables and interactions into a model simultaneously. Missing data in our predictors and our
outcome (2.7% total data missing) were addressed using a version of Full Information Maximum
Likelihood (FIML) that produces standard errors robust to non-normality (MLR: Muthén, 2011).
All predictors were mean-centered before creating interaction terms and inferential statistics.
Means, standard deviations, and correlations for all study variables are reported in Table 1.
Overall, the sample endorsed a fairly low number of depressive symptoms (M = 11.04, SD = 11,
Range = 0-53). Economic hardship (r =.33, p < .01) and peer discrimination (r =.49, p < .01)
were moderately and positively associated with depressive symptoms, while shift-&-persist was
negatively associated with depressive symptoms (r = -.16, p < .05). Ethnic-racial identity was not
associated with depressive symptoms.
Table 1. Means, standard deviations, and correlations for all study variables (N=175).
Variable
Mean (SD)
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(1) Depressive Symptoms
11.04 (11.00)
1
(2) Economic Hardship
2.22 (.79)
.33**
1
(3) Peer Discrimination
1.67 (.64)
.49**
.13
1
(4) Shift-&-persist
3.14 (.64)
-.16*
-.23**
-.12
1
(5) Ethnic-racial Identity
4.23 (.70)
-.09
-.15
-.04
.27**
1
*p < .05, **p < .01
1
A person-centered approach was first attempted using shift-&-persist, centrality, and private regard as predictors in
a latent profile analysis but model indices indicated that, partly due to a small number of indicators and limited
variability with respect to ethnic-racial identity, multiple, distinct profiles did not exist within the data.
COPING AND CULTURE 16
Primary Analyses
Economic hardship. Unstandardized regression coefficients, robust standard errors, and
p-values for the shift-&-persist and shift-&-persist + identity models can be found in Table 2.
Results from the shift-&-persist model suggest that economic hardship was associated with more
depressive symptoms (b = 4.43, SE = 1.11, p < .001) alongside a significant interaction between
shift-&-persist and economic hardship (b = -3.91, SE = 1.67, p = .02). Figure 1 shows the simple
slopes plotted at one standard deviation above and below the mean of economic hardship.
Consistent with our hypotheses, the positive relation between economic hardship and depressive
symptoms was attenuated for youth high in shift-&-persist (b = 1.91, SE = .87, p = .03) and
accentuated for youth low in shift-&-persist (b = 6.95, SE = 2.01, p = .001). When ethnic-racial
identity was added into the shift-&-persist + identity model, the interaction between economic
hardship and shift-&-persist remained significant, but ethnic-racial identity was not directly
associated with depressive symptoms (b = -.58, SE = 1.16, p = .62) and was there was not a
three-way interaction between economic hardship, shift-&-persist, and identity (b = 2.93, SE =
2.70, p = .28).
COPING AND CULTURE 17
Table 2. Multiple regression with economic hardship predicting youth-reported depressive
symptoms.
Shift-&-persist model (R2 = .16, p = .09, N = 174)
b
SE
p
Economic Hardship
4.43
1.11
<.001
S&P
-.99
1.29
.44
Economic Hardship x S&P
-3.91
1.67
.02
Shift-&-persist + identity model (R2 = .17, p = .08, N = 175)
b
SE
p
Economic Hardship
3.73
1.12
.001
S&P
-.75
1.27
.55
ERI
-.58
1.16
.62
Economic Hardship x S&P
-4.87
1.73
.005
Economic Hardship x ERI
1.36
2.07
.51
S&P x ERI
-.18
2.63
.94
Economic Hardship x S&P x ERI
2.93
2.70
.28
Figure 1. Simple slopes for economic hardship moderated by shift-&-persist.
Peer discrimination. In the shift-&-persist model, in which youth depressive symptoms
were regressed on peer discrimination and shift-&-persist (see Table 3), higher peer
discrimination was associated with more depressive symptoms (b = 7.95, SE = 1.47, p < .001),
but the interaction between shift-&-persist and discrimination was not significant (b = -2.12, SE
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
-1SD Mean +1SD
Depressive Symptoms
Economic Hardship
Low S&P
Mean S&P
High S&P
* p<.01
* p<.01
* p=.03
COPING AND CULTURE 18
= 2.67, p = .43). When we introduced identity into the shift-&-persist + identity model, the main
effect of peer discrimination remained significant (b = 6.76, SE = 1.31, p < .001) and, consistent
with our hypothesis, the three-way interaction between discrimination, shift-&-persist, and
identity was significant as well (b = 7.98, SE = 3.63, p = .03). However, the nature of the
interaction was not as hypothesized. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was a positive association
between peer discrimination and depressive symptoms for those high in ethnic-racial identity
whether youth had low (b = 8.18, SE = 1.77, p = .00) or high shift-&-persist (b = 11.00, SE =
3.78, p = .004). For youth low in ethnic-racial identity, however, the relation between peer
discrimination and depressive symptoms was non-significant when shift-&-persist was high (b =
-7.59, SE = 6.19, p = .22), implying that high shift-&-persist protected against depressive
symptoms in the face of discrimination only when youth have low ethnic-racial identity
endorsement. Additionally, when ethnic-racial identity was low, the relation between
discrimination and depressive symptoms was also non-significant when shift-&-persist was at
the mean (b = -1.84, SE = 4.05, p = .65), but was significant at low levels of shift-&-persist (b =
9.68, SE = 1.84, p < .001). Together, these findings suggest that average to high levels of shift-
&-persist are protective against discrimination when ethnic-racial identity is low. Figure 2
illustrates the simple slopes plotted at one standard deviation above and below the mean of
economic hardship when ethnic-racial identity is one standard deviation below the mean.
COPING AND CULTURE 19
Table 3. Multiple regression with peer discrimination predicting youth-reported depressive
symptoms.
Shift-&-persist model (R2 = .26, p < .001, N = 175)
b
SE
p
Peer Discrimination
7.95
1.47
<.001
S&P
-1.71
1.35
.21
S&P x Peer Discrimination
-2.12
2.67
.43
Shift-&-persist + identity model (R2 = .29, p < .001, N = 175)
b
SE
p
Peer Discrimination
6.76
1.31
<.001
S&P
-1.94
1.32
.14
ERI
.013
1.11
.99
Peer Discrimination x S&P
-3.37
2.36
.15
Peer Discrimination x ERI
4.07
2.33
.08
S&P x ERI
3.06
1.98
.12
Peer Discrimination x S&P x ERI
7.98
3.63
.03
Figure 2. Simple slopes for peer discrimination moderated by shift-&-persist at different levels of
ethnic-racial identity.
Sensitivity analyses. Some research has reported that positive ethnic-racial affect
(private regard) can buffer the effect of discrimination on psychosocial outcomes (Rivas-Drake
et al., 2014). Thus, a sensitivity analysis was conducted wherein we replaced our measure of
ethnic-racial identity (a combination of private regard and centrality) with private regard alone. If
positive ethnic-racial affect was driving the 3-way interaction between shift-&-persist, ethnic-
racial identity, and discrimination, then this 3-way interaction would be expected to remain
significant after eliminating centrality from the measure of ethnic-racial identity. There was no
COPING AND CULTURE 20
main effect of private regard (b = -.07, p = .944), no significant 2-way interactions, and a
marginal but non-significant 3-way interaction (b = 5.16, p = .064) between shift-&-persist,
private regard, and peer discrimination. This implies that, in this sample, centrality and private
regard both seem to play a role in influencing the relationship between discrimination and
depressive symptoms.
Discussion
Shift-&-persist is a secondary coping strategy involving cognitive reappraisal, positive
future orientation, and meaning in life that has been shown to protect against negative health
outcomes such as inflammation (E. Chen & Miller, 2015), obesity (Kallem et al., 2013), and
asthma symptoms (E. Chen et al., 2011) in low-SES youth. While this coping strategy
theoretically operates similarly with respect to mental health outcomes, this claim is as of yet
empirically untested. Furthermore, minoritized youth, who are often overrepresented in low-SES
communities, are subjected to additional, harmful uncontrollable stressors like ethnic-racial
discrimination. Although cultural protective factors like ethnic-racial identity have been
identified as assets that may protect against depressive symptoms in the face of discrimination
(Neblett et al., 2012), no past work has examined how shift-&-persist may operate in tandem
with ethnic-racial identity to protect against negative psychosocial outcomes in low-SES
minoritized youth. Because early adolescence is a crucial period where youth increase their use
of cognitive coping strategies (Compas et al., 2017) and begin to more intentionally explore and
come to terms with what their ethnic-racial identity means to them (Rivas-Drake et al., 2014), it
is important to understand how shift-&-persist and ethnic-racial identity work to foster positive
youth adjustment in the face of uncontrollable stressors like economic hardship and
discrimination.
COPING AND CULTURE 21
To address these gaps in the literature, the current study tested whether the shift-&-persist
coping strategy was effective in protecting against depressive symptoms by examining how shift-
&-persist operated as a moderator in response to both cultural and non-cultural stressors, and by
examining how ethnic-racial identity interacted with shift-&-persist and stressors to predict
depressive symptoms in a sample of low-income Latinx youth (80.8% of households earning
less than $30,000). Overall, Chen and Miller’s (2012) assertion that shift-&-persist is associated
with positive psychological functioning for low-SES youth was supported, although the
beneficial effect depended on the type of stressor. Consistent with past work, shift-&-persist was
protective for youth experiencing high levels of economic hardship, but the protective effect of
shift-&-persist for peer discrimination depended on Latinx youths’ level of ethnic-racial identity.
Contrary to what was hypothesized, the protective effect of shift-&-persist in the face of peer
discrimination only emerged for youth at average and lower, but not greater, levels of ethnic-
racial identity (i.e., private regard and ethnic-racial centrality).
Consistent with the first hypothesis proposing shift-&-persist as a moderator of the
association between economic hardship and discrimination, results indicated that youth high on
shift-&-persist were protected from the association between economic hardship and depression.
This is consistent with past work suggesting that shift-&-persist is associated with positive
physical health outcomes for low-SES youth (Kallem et al., 2013), and supports Chen & Miller’s
(2012) claim that the shift-&-persist framework extends to psychological outcomes. Also
consistent with this hypothesis, there was no significant interaction between economic hardship,
shift-&-persist, and ethnic-racial identity. Because economic hardship is a pervasive social
stressor that is not explicitly culturally-based, ethnic-racial identity did not seem to confer
additional protection against depressive symptoms.
COPING AND CULTURE 22
Building upon more recent empirical work by Lam and colleagues (2018) examining
shift-&-persist in the context of unfair treatment, this study aimed to determine whether shift-&-
persist protected against peer discrimination. When factoring in ethnic-racial identity, results
indicated that average and high levels of shift-&-persist were protective against peer
discrimination, but only at low levels of ethnic-racial identity. That is, when youth felt less
positively about their Latinx heritage and their heritage was less central to their identity, mean to
high levels of shift-&-persist were associated with fewer depressive symptoms for Latinx youth
exposed to high levels of discrimination. Although the results did not find that high shift-&-
persist and high ethnic-racial identity work together and mitigate the impact of depressive
symptoms as proposed in Hypothesis 2, the results instead suggested that shift-&-persist is most
protective in response to peer discrimination when youth lack a strong, traditionally-protective
identity. This finding, therefore, supports the notion that shift-&-persist, while adaptive for an
uncontrollable stressor such as peer discrimination, does not complement identity, but instead
acts as a supplement, providing protection against depression in the absence of a strong identity.
Finally, this finding suggests that there are different mechanisms by which culturally and non-
culturally-based uncontrollable stressors are associated with depressive symptoms in youth. In
trying to better understand the factors that protect youth against negative psychological
adjustment, it is important to further examine the complex interplay between shift-&-persist and
ethnic-racial identity that may explain this finding.
One possible explanation for the surprising relation between identity and shift-&-persist
in predicting youth depressive symptoms may be due to the “double-edged nature” (Yip, 2018)
of ethnic-racial identity. Although ethnic-racial identity is frequently thought to be protective
against culturally-based stressors such as discrimination (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014), other
COPING AND CULTURE 23
studies have found that the negative impacts of discrimination are worse among those with high
levels of identity endorsement, particularly centrality (Burrow & Ong, 2010). Although Yip
(2018) concludes that there is not yet a consensus on how ethnic-racial identity provides
protection and/or risk in the face of discrimination, these findings support the aforementioned
theory that higher identity endorsement is associated with negative outcomes in the face of
discrimination, as discrimination was positively associated with depression regardless of shift-&-
persist levels.
In the current study this study’s measure of ethnic-racial identity was limited to two
content-based components: centrality and private regard, which capture the degree to which
identity is important to youths’ self-concept (centrality) and the degree to which group
membership is viewed positively by youth (private regard). Other process-based components of
ethnic-racial identity such as exploration (the process of learning and making meaning of ethnic-
racial heritage) and commitment (the sense of belonging to a specific ethnic-racial group) have
also been found to moderate the relations between discrimination and depressive symptoms
(Torres & Ong, 2010). Because of the many challenges of operationalizing and measuring
identity, future empirical work should examine the relations between shift-&-persist and
different aspects of ethnic-racial identity in order to further clarify when and how the two
interact to influence youths’ psychological well-being.
Another explanation for these findings may lie in the relative utility of utilizing
proactive, primary coping strategies rather than secondary coping strategies, such as shift-&-
persist, in youth with strong ethnic-racial identities. This would be consistent with the finding by
Seaton and colleagues (2014) whereby avoidant coping and strong ethnic-racial identity
predicted worse depressive symptoms. To combat the deleterious effects of peer discrimination,
COPING AND CULTURE 24
youth may need to be armed not just with strong and central ethnic-racial identity, but also
equipped with more active, primary coping resources that help youth feel that they are impacting
the larger societal structure. For example, work by Hope and colleagues (2017) finds that civic
engagement may be an adaptive coping response to discrimination, especially for youth with
stronger ethnic-racial identities. Longitudinal work has shown identity resolution to be predictive
of proactive coping over time in the face of discrimination among Latinx adolescents (Umaña-
Taylor et al., 2008). Furthermore, in a study with Latinx college students, French & Chavez
(2010) found that strong ethnic-racial identity alone was insufficient to overcome stereotype
discrimination, further supporting arguments emphasizing the necessity of proactive coping in
addition to ethnic-racial identity to buffer the negative impacts of discriminatory experiences
(Sellers & Shelton, 2003).
On the other hand, longitudinal examinations of the impacts of political activism among
Black and Latinx college students have found that microaggressions were related to more stress
and anxiety for Black students who were highly politically active but were related to less stress
and fewer depressive symptoms for politically active Latinx college students (Hope, Velez,
Offidani-Bertrand, Keels, & Durkee, 2018). These findings imply that primary coping strategies
may be associated with positive psychological adjustment only under certain conditions and,
potentially, for certain ethnic-racial groups. At the same time, secondary coping strategies could
be beneficial under certain circumstances, and perhaps even more important than primary coping
strategies. Ultimately, this study offers evidence that in the face of high levels of discrimination,
average to high levels of shift-&-persist, a secondary coping strategy, are important in protecting
against depressive symptoms when ethnic-racial identity is lower. However, because the
adoption of secondary coping strategies such as shift-&-persist does not protect against
COPING AND CULTURE 25
depressive symptoms in the face of discrimination when ethnic-racial is high, future work is
needed to compare the utility of proactive, primary coping strategies with more passive
secondary coping strategies like shift-&-persist in guarding against depressive symptoms at
different levels of identity endorsement. Furthermore, because many other psychological health
outcomes beyond depression can manifest in response to these stressors, future work should
continue to examine whether different coping strategies like shift-&-persist protect against the
effects of various types of uncontrollable stressors on other psychological outcomes such as
anxiety, self-esteem, and externalizing behaviors.
Further, the persist aspect of shift-&-persist may still prove to be beneficial to protect
against discrimination especially if youth are able to continue to find meaning (e.g., potentially
through civic engagement) and see a positive path to the future for themselves. Interestingly,
there was a significant positive correlation between shift-&-persist and ethnic-racial identity in
this sample of Latinx youth (r = .27, p < .01). Although not hypothesized, this significant
correlation underscores the claim that these traditionally protective factors covary and together
have downstream implications for psychological well-being in minoritized youth. This positive
correlation is most likely due to the links between ethnic-racial identity and meaning in life. The
presence of meaning in life has been shown to serve as a partial mediator of the relationship
between identity and psychological adjustment in a diverse sample of 12th grade students (Kiang
& Fuligni, 2010). Significant positive correlations between ethnic-racial identity and meaning in
life have also been found in a sample of African American adults (Ajibade, Hook, Utsey, Davis,
& Van Tongeren, 2016). Ultimately, more work is needed to understand the relationship between
these two interrelated constructs and the implications of this relationship for positive
COPING AND CULTURE 26
psychological well-being among minoritized youth and its role in protecting against
discrimination.
This study is novel as it contributes to the field’s understanding of shift-&-persist and
resilience; however, it is not without limitations. The first limitation is the cross-sectional nature
of our data. Although theories would suggest that utilizing the shift-&-persist coping strategy
works across time to prevent the development of depressive symptoms when faced with
economic hardship or discrimination, it is not possible to determine causality nor directionality
from these cross-sectional analyses. Future work should take a more developmental approach in
examining how high levels of shift-&-persist can protect against the development of depressive
symptoms over time and examine the potential mediating role of shift-&-persist when youth with
different levels of identity endorsement are exposed to uncontrollable stressors. Future
longitudinal work should also consider how these relations are impacted by parental relationship
quality and how the shift-&-persist strategy may be modeled by parents and transmitted over
time from parent to child as suggested in Miller and colleagues’ (2014) work examining the
impact of the Strong African American Families program.
Second, this project was not specifically designed to study shift-&-persist. Although the
chosen variables mirror those used in Lam and colleagues’ (2018) shift-&-persist measure, the
measure used in this study may not wholly capture the shift-&-persist construct. Although this
measure effectively reflects the acceptance and cognitive reappraisal aspects of shift, for persist
it focuses only on meaning in life and does not capture the sense of optimism or positive future
orientation that has been theorized to be present in those that shift and persist. These facets of
shift-&-persist may be particularly important to measure when examining depressive symptoms.
Future work should attempt to incorporate items measuring positive future orientation and
COPING AND CULTURE 27
optimism into existing measures of shift-&-persist to increase the construct and predictive
validity of our measures. Future work should also test the theoretical assertion that shift-&-
persist leads to the best outcomes for youth faced with uncontrollable stressors by examining
shift-&-persist both separately and together, as was done in the current study.
Finally, this study solely assessed dispositional, individually-based assets that may help
foster resilience in minoritized youth. Similar to how parenting may help instill the shift-&-
persist coping strategy in youth (Miller et al., 2014), ethnic-racial socialization messages
delivered by parents, which have been associated with resilience in minoritized populations
(Brown & Tylka, 2011), may also interact with shift-&-persist to foster resilience in the face of
discrimination. Future work should examine the interplay of internal assets such as ethnic-racial
identity and shift-&-persist with external assets such as positive parenting and socialization
messages in contributing to psychosocial resilience in this population.
Conclusion
Although the shift-&-persist coping strategy has been theorized to confer upon
marginalized youth psychological protection in the face of uncontrollable stressors (Chen &
Miller, 2012), this claim has not been empirically tested. This study tested whether shift-&-
persist worked in tandem with ethnic-racial identity to protect low-SES Latinx youth against
depressive symptoms in the face of uncontrollable stressors (i.e. economic hardship and
discrimination). This was accomplished by testing two and three-way interactions to determine
whether shift-&-persist and ethnic-racial identity moderated the relationship between the
uncontrollable stressor and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that shift-&-persist was
associated with fewer depressive symptoms for those facing high levels of economic hardship
and for those high in peer discrimination but low in ethnic-racial identity. These novel findings
COPING AND CULTURE 28
provide support for the notion that the shift-&-persist coping strategy, which has been associated
with positive physical health for low-SES youth, may be protective in the face of economic and
cultural stressors for Latinx youth. These findings also provide support for the notion that ethnic-
racial identity may act as a “double-edged sword” (Yip, 2018), as endorsing a strong identity in
the face of high discrimination was associated with the greatest number of depressive symptoms
for our sample of Latinx youth, even when taking shift-&-persist into account. Finally, these
findings contribute to the understanding of identity and positive youth development by
illustrating that the use of the shift-&-persist coping strategy may lessen the impact of
discrimination on depressive symptoms for adolescents who are still undertaking the
developmental task of forming a strong, central identity. Future work should begin to examine
how the shift-and-persist coping strategy may be associated with additional mental health
outcomes in minoritized youth whilst also considering the influence of important cultural factors
such as ethnic-racial identity.
COPING AND CULTURE 29
References
Angold, A., Costello, E.J., Messer, S.C., Pickles, A., Winder, F., & Silver, D. (1995).
Development of a short questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies of depression in
children and adolescents. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 5,
237–249.
Ajibade, A., Hook, J. N., Utsey, S. O., Davis, D. E., & Van Tongeren, D. R. (2016).
Racial/ethnic identity, religious commitment, and well-being in African
Americans. Journal of Black Psychology, 42(3), 244-258.
Barrera, M., Caples, H., & Tein, J. Y. (2001). The psychological sense of economic hardship:
Measurement models, validity, and cross-ethnic equivalence for urban families. American
Journal of Community Psychology, 29(3), 493-517.
Benner, A. D., Wang, Y., Shen, Y., Boyle, A. E., Polk, R., & Cheng, Y. P. (2018). Racial/ethnic
discrimination and well-being during adolescence: A meta-analytic review. American
Psychologist, 73(7), 855-883.
Brassai, L., Piko, B. F., & Steger, M. F. (2011). Meaning in life: Is it a protective factor for
adolescents’ psychological health?. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 18(1),
44-51.
Brown, D. L., & Tylka, T. L. (2011). Racial discrimination and resilience in african american
young adults: Examining racial socialization as a moderator. Journal of Black
Psychology, 37(3), 259–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798410390689
Burrow, A. L., O’Dell, A. C., & Hill, P. L. (2010). Profiles of a developmental asset: Youth
purpose as a context for hope and well-being. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(11),
1265-1273.
COPING AND CULTURE 30
Burrow, A. L., & Ong, A. D. (2010). Racial identity as a moderator of daily exposure and
reactivity to racial discrimination. Self and Identity, 9, 383–402.
Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A
theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 267-283.
Chen, E. (2012). Protective factors for health among low-socioeconomic-status individuals.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(3), 189–193.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412438710
Chen, E., McLean, K. C., & Miller, G. E. (2015). Shift-and-persist strategies: associations with
socioeconomic status and the regulation of inflammation among adolescents and their
parents. Psychosomatic Medicine, 77(4), 371–382.
Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (2012). “Shift-and-persist” strategies: Why low socioeconomic status
isn’t always bad for health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(2), 135–158.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612436694
Chen, E., Strunk, R. C., Trethewey, A., Schreier, H. M. C., Maharaj, N., & Miller, G. E. (2011).
Resilience in low-socioeconomic-status children with asthma: Adaptations to stress.
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 128(5), 970–976.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2011.06.040
Chen, L., Li, X., Imami, L., Lin, D., Zhao, J., Zhao, G., & Zilioli, S. (2019). Diurnal cortisol in a
sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged Chinese children: Evidence for the shift-and-
persist hypothesis. Psychosomatic Medicine, 81(2), 200.
https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000659
COPING AND CULTURE 31
Colby, S. L. and Ortman, J. (2014). Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S.
Population: 2014 to 2060, Current Population Reports, P25-1143, U.S. Census Bureau,
Washington, DC
Compas, B. E., Jaser, S. S., Bettis, A. H., Watson, K. H., Gruhn, M. A., Dunbar, J. P., …
Thigpen, J. C. (2017). Coping, emotion regulation, and psychopathology in childhood
and adolescence: A meta-analysis and narrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 143(9),
939–991. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000110
Field, A. (2013). Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics (4th ed.). Sage Publications
Ltd.
French, S., & Chavez, N. (2010). The relationship of ethnicity-related stressors and Latino ethnic
identity to well-being. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 32(3), 410-428.
doi:10.1177/0739986310374716
Ho, M. Y., Cheung, F. M., & Cheung, S. F. (2010). The role of meaning in life and optimism in
promoting well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(5), 658-663.
Hope, E. C., & Spencer, M. B. (2017). Civic engagement as an adaptive coping response to
conditions of inequality: An application of phenomenological variant of ecological
systems theory (PVEST). In Handbook on positive development of minority children and
youth (pp. 421-435). Springer, Cham.
Hope, E. C., Velez, G., Offidani-Bertrand, C., Keels, M., & Durkee, M. I. (2018). Political
activism and mental health among Black and Latinx college students. Cultural Diversity
and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 24(1), 26–39. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000144
Kallem, S., Carroll‐Scott, A., Rosenthal, L., Chen, E., Peters, S. M., McCaslin, C., & Ickovics, J.
R. (2013). Shift-and-persist: A protective factor for elevated BMI among low-
COPING AND CULTURE 32
socioeconomic-status children. Obesity, 21(9), 1759–1763.
https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.20195
Kiang, L., & Fuligni, A. (2010). Meaning in life as a mediator of ethnic identity and adjustment
among adolescents from Latin, Asian, and European American backgrounds. Journal of
Youth and Adolescence, 39(11), 1253-1264. doi:10.1007/s10964-009-9475-z
Kiang, L., & Witkow, M. R. (2018). Identifying as American among adolescents from Asian
backgrounds. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(1), 64–76.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0776-3
Kiang, L., Yip, T., Gonzales-Backen, M., Witkow, M., & Fuligni, A. J. (2006). Ethnic identity
and the daily psychological well-being of adolescents from Mexican and Chinese
backgrounds. Child Development, 77, 1338-1350.
King, L. A., Hicks, J. A., Krull, J. L., & Del Gaiso, A. K. (2006). Positive affect and the
experience of meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(1), 179.
Lam, P. H., Miller, G. E., Chiang, J. J., Levine, C. S., Le, V., Shalowitz, M. U., … Chen, E.
(2018). One size does not fit all: Links between shift-and-persist and asthma in youth are
moderated by perceived social status and experience of unfair treatment. Development
and Psychopathology, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579418000913
Mello, D., Wiebe, D., & Berg, C. (2019). Maternal shift-and-persist coping, SES, and adolescent
type 1 diabetes management. Children’s Health Care, 0(0), 1–15.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02739615.2019.1570465
Miller, G. E., Brody, G. H., Yu, T., & Chen, E. (2014). A family-oriented psychosocial
intervention reduces inflammation in low-SES African American youth. Proceedings of
COPING AND CULTURE 33
the National Academy of Sciences, 111(31), 11287–11292.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1406578111
Mossakowski, K. N. (2003). Coping with perceived discrimination: Does ethnic identity protect
mental health?. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 318-331.
Muthén, L. K. (2011, September 26). MLR [Online discussion post]. Retrieved from
http://www.statmodel.com/discussion/messages/11/2156.html?1302455438.
Mroczkowski, A., & Snchez, B. (2015). The role of racial discrimination in the economic value
of education among urban, low-income Latina/o youth: Ethnic identity and gender as
moderators. American Journal of Community Psychology, 56(1-2), 1-11.
doi:10.1007/s10464-015-9728-9
Neblett, E. W., Rivas‐Drake, D., & Umaña‐Taylor, A. J. (2012). The promise of racial and ethnic
protective factors in promoting ethnic minority youth development. Child Development
Perspectives, 6(3), 295–303. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00239.x
Pahl, K., & Way, N. (2006). Longitudinal trajectories of ethnic identity among urban Black and
Latino adolescents. Child Development, 77, 1403–1415.
Rivas‐Drake, D., Seaton, E. K., Markstrom, C., Quintana, S., Syed, M., Lee, R. M., … Yip, T.
(2014). Ethnic and racial identity in adolescence: Implications for psychosocial,
academic, and health outcomes. Child Development, 85(1), 40–57.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12200
Roberts, R. E., Phinney, J. S., Masse, L. C., Chen, Y. R., Roberts, C. R., & Romero, A. (1999).
The structure of ethnic identity of young adolescents from diverse ethnocultural groups.
The Journal of Early Adolescence, 19(3), 301-322.
COPING AND CULTURE 34
Seaton, E. K., Upton, R., Gilbert, A., & Volpe, V. (2014). A Moderated mediation model: Racial
discrimination, coping strategies, and racial identity among Black adolescents. Child
Development, 85(3), 882–890. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12122
Sellers, R. M., Smith, M. A., Shelton, J. N., Rowley, S. J., & Chavous, T. M. (1998).
Multidimensional model of racial identity: A reconceptualization of African American
racial identity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2(1), 18-39.
doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0201_2.
Sellers, R. M., & Shelton, J. N. (2003). The role of racial identity in perceived racial
discrimination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1079–1092.
Sellers, R. M., Copeland-Linder, N., Martin, P. P., & Lewis, R. L. H. (2006). Racial identity
matters: The relationship between racial discrimination and psychological functioning in
African American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 16, 187–216.
Spencer, M. B., Dupree, D., & Hartmann, T. (1997). A phenomenological variant of ecological
systems theory (PVEST): A self-organization perspective in context. Development and
Psychopathology, 9(4), 817-833.
Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The Meaning in Life Questionnaire:
Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling
Psychology, 53, 80-93.
Stein, G. L., Gonzalez, L. M., & Huq, N. (2012). Cultural stressors and the hopelessness model
of depressive symptoms in Latino adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence,
41(10), 1339–1349. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9765-8
COPING AND CULTURE 35
Sumner, R., Burrow, A. L., & Hill, P. L. (2018). The development of purpose in life among
adolescents who experience marginalization: Potential opportunities and obstacles.
American Psychologist, 73(6), 740–752. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000249
Torres, L., & Ong, A. D. (2010). A daily diary investigation of Latino ethnic identity,
discrimination, and depression. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16,
561– 568.
Twenge, J. M., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2002). Age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and
birth cohort difference on the children's depression inventory: A meta-analysis. Journal
of abnormal psychology, 111(4), 578.
Umaña‐Taylor, A. J., Quintana, S. M., Lee, R. M., Cross Jr, W. E., Rivas‐Drake, D., Schwartz,
S. J., ... & Ethnic and Racial Identity in the 21st Century Study Group. (2014). Ethnic and
racial identity during adolescence and into young adulthood: An integrated
conceptualization. Child Development, 85(1), 21-39.
Umaña-Taylor, A. J., Vargas-Chanes, D., Garcia, C. D., & Gonzales-Backen, M. (2008). A
longitudinal examination of Latino adolescents' ethnic identity, coping with
discrimination, and self-esteem. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 28(1), 16-50.
Way, N. (1997). Adult and peer discrimination measure. Unpublished manuscript.
Yip, T. (2018). Ethnic/racial identity—A double-edged sword? Associations with discrimination
and psychological outcomes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 170-
175.
Zaff, J. F., Blount, R. L., Phillips, L., & Cohen, L. (2002). The role of ethnic identity and self-
construal in coping among African American and Caucasian American seventh graders:
An exploratory analysis of within-group variance. Adolescence, 37(148), 751-774.
COPING AND CULTURE 36
Appendix
To justify measuring shift and persist as one construct, a principle components analysis
with an oblique rotation (direct oblimin) was conducted in SPSS version 25. Sampling adequacy
was acceptable (KMO = .79). Two components, a shift and a persist component, were requested,
both producing eigenvalue’s over Kaiser’s criterion of 1. Together, these two components
explained 46.49% of the variance in the 13 items. An oblique rotation, which allows the two
factors to be correlated with each other (Field, 2013), was conducted due to the proposed
significant correlation between shift and persist. The rotated factor loadings, the post-rotation
eigenvalues, the percentage of the variance explained by each factor, and the reliability of each
factor are shown in the supplemental table. Overall, the items that load onto each factor suggest
that factor 1 represents shift, while factor 2 represents persist. When treated as subscales of the
one construct shift-&-persist, these subscales were significantly positively correlated (r = .279, p
< .001). Based on these findings, in conjunction with theoretical work asserting that shift and
persist are most effective when operating in tandem (Chen & Miller, 2012) and past empirical
work measuring shift-&-persist as one construct (Lam et al., 2018), subsequent analyses were
conducted using the 13-item measure of shift-&-persist.
COPING AND CULTURE 37
Principal components analysis for the shift-&-persist measure.
Item
Rotated Factor Loadings
Original Measure
Shift
Persist
I try to grow as a person as a result of the
experience.
COPE-1
.06
-.42
I get used to the idea that it happened.
COPE-13
.49
-.14
I accept that this has happened and that it
can't be changed.
COPE-21
.45
-.21
I try to see it in a different light, to make it
seem more positive.
COPE-29
.73
.20
I look for something good in what is
happening.
COPE-38
.70
.03
I accept the reality of the fact that it
happened.
COPE-44
.62
-.11
I learn to live with it.
COPE-54
.68
-.10
I learn something from the experience.
COPE-59
.71
.01
I understand my life’s meaning.
MIL-1
.06
-.81
My life has a clear sense of purpose.
MIL-4
-.07
-.89
I have a good sense of what makes my life
meaningful.
MIL-5
.04
-.82
I have discovered a satisfying life purpose.
MIL-6
-.08
-.77
My life has no clear purpose.
MIL-9*
.40
.10
Eigenvalues After Eotation
--
3.14
3.19
Percentage of Variance
--
28.59
17.90
α
--
.75
.85
Note. Factor loadings over .4 appear in bold. * indicates reverse-scored item. (COPE: Carver,
Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) (MIL: Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler, 2006).
A preview of this full-text is provided by Springer Nature.
Content available from Journal of Youth and Adolescence
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
