The Stress, Health and Interpersonal Relationships Laboratory
Our research program investigates the impact of psychological stress and social relationships on well-being and health outcomes across the lifespan. We are interested in identifying specific biopsychosocial pathways through which stress and social relationships influence risk for age-related diseases. Using a developmental perspective, we examine how early life stress and chronic stress exposure confer increased risk for age-related diseases later in life.
Specifically, we examine how stress and social relationships influence 1) positive and negative emotions, emotion regulation processes, and depression; 2) engagement in health behaviours, including sleep, physical activity, and diet; 3) stress-related physiological processes, such as chronic inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and low parasympathetic functioning, and 4) the interactions among these different processes, in particular the bidirectional and reciprocal associations between psychosocial stress and inflammation.
We are particularly interested in how spouses influence each other in terms of emotional responses, health behaviours, and physiology. Recent work aims at developing couples-based interventions to improve dyadic coping, how spouses work together to deal with the stresses that both partners are facing, and foster positive health behaviour change, including changes in diet, physical activity, and sleep-related habits. Our intervention development work also examines how to combine psychotherapy and exercise training. In this context, we have completed studies examining the effects of psychotherapy and exercise training in the treatment of insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, and their comorbidity.
The Team
Dr. Jean-Philippe Gouin, PhD
Principal Investigator
Dr. Jean-Philippe Gouin is a clinical psychologist, a member of the Center for Clinical Research in Health, and a professor in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University. He completed his graduate training at the University of Montreal (MPs), the Ohio State University (PhD), and Rush University Medical Center (Clinical residency). Dr. Gouin holds a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Chronic Stress and Health.
Alexandra Janho, M.A.
Lab Manager
Alexandra completed a Master’s of Arts in Sociology and an undergraduate minor in Education from McGill University. She has been managing the SIRH lab since 2019, and coordinates a clinical trial intervention on a dyadic approach to healthy eating and active living.
Naz Yagmur Alpdogan, MSc
Research Assistant
Naz completed a B.A. in Honours Psychology at McGill University and a Master of Science in research at the University of Sherbrooke. She is currently coordinating a longitudinal study focused on how health behaviours and interpersonal processes influence health behaviour change and chronic illness risk.
Ignacio Perezmontemayor Cruz
Master’s Student
Ignacio received a B.A. in Honours Psychology from McGill University in 2022. His senior undergraduate thesis, under the supervision of Dr. David Dunkley, focused on the association between brooding rumination and experiential avoidance among perfectionists. Ignacio is currently a Ph.D student in the Clinical Psychology program at Concordia University. His research interests include understanding how emotion regulation strategies can become factors of resilience or vulnerability in chronically stressed populations.
Maegan Dymarski, M.A.
PhD Student
Maegan received an Honours B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Ottawa in 2022 and completed her Master of Arts in Psychology at Carleton University in 2024. Her master's research, supervised by Drs. Anne Bowker and Annick Buchholz, focused on body esteem and health behaviours among youth with obesity. Maegan joined the Clinical Psychology program at Concordia University in 2024. Her research in the SIRH lab focuses on health behaviour change in couples. Broadly, her research interests include understanding how psychosocial factors influence health behaviours and shape long-term health trajectories.
Sara Matovic, M.Sc
PhD Student
Sara obtained her BSc (’15) and MSc (’17) in Neuroscience at the University of Western Ontario. During her MSc she worked under the supervision of Dr. Wataru Inoue, examining the neurobiological changes in response to chronic stress. Sara joined the Stress, Interpersonal Relationships, and Health Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Jean-Philippe Gouin in 2020. Here, her research interests include understanding the relationships between stress, physical and psychological health, interpersonal relationships and health behaviour change.
Emily Carrese-Chacra, M.Sc
PhD Student
Emily received a B.A. in Psychology from Concordia University in 2019. Her undergraduate thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Sydney Miller, focused on the effects of coping strategies and optimism on resilience in disadvantaged youth. In 2019, she coordinated a study led by Drs. Jean-Philippe Gouin and Veronique Pepin on the effects of exercise training and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia on sleep apnea and insomnia. Emily is currently a Ph.D student in the Clinical Psychology program at Concordia University. Her research interests include understanding how couples’ behaviors influence change in health behaviors, specifically eating and physical activity habits.
James Garneau
PhD Student
James joined the Stress, Interpersonal Relationships, and Health Laboratory in 2021 as a Master’s Student in Clinical Psychology after completing his Bachelor of Science degree in the Honours Psychology program at McGill University. His research interests broadly focus on the effect of individual differences in stress on psychotherapeutic outcomes and sleep. His current research involves exploring the link between heart-rate variability and response to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in cancer patients. He is also working on a project investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sleep quality in older adults.