Resilience in low-socioeconomic-status children with asthma: adaptations to stress.

Background: Low socioeconomic status (SES) is a strong predictor of many health problems, including asthma impairment; however, little is understood about why some patients defy this trend by exhibiting good asthma control despite living in adverse environments.

Objective: This study sought to test whether a psychological characteristic, the shift-and-persist strategy (dealing with stressors by reframing them more positively while at the same time persisting in optimistic thoughts about the future), protects low-SES children with asthma.

Methods: One hundred twenty-one children aged 9 to 18 years with a physician's diagnosis of asthma were recruited from medical practices and community advertisements (mean age, 12.