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Jean-Philippe Gouin, PhD

Professor, Psychology


Jean-Philippe  Gouin, PhD

Education

PhD (The Ohio State University)

Biography

Dr. Gouin, a clinical psychologist, a former Canada Research Chair in Chronic Stress and Health and the director of the Stress, Interpersonal Relationships, and Health Laboratory.

**I will be recruiting a new graduate student during the 2023-2024 application cycle. Students interested in dyadic health behaviour change intervention will be prioritized. Bilingualism English-French is an asset**

Research interests

Our research program investigates the impact of chronic stress on health and well-being. Specifically, we examine risk and resiliency psychosocial processes (rumination, interpersonal relationship quality & sleep quality) impacting the negative psychological (e.g. depression and anxiety), behavioural (e.g. poor diet and lack of physical activity) and physiological (e.g. chronic inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, low parasympathetic functioning) consequences of cumulative and chronic exposure to social and environmental stressors over the life course. In this context, we are particularly interested in dyadic coping, how spouse work together to deal with the stresses that both partners are facing and how spouses influence each other in terms of emotional responses, health behaviours, and physiology. Recent work also include couples-based health behaviour change interventions. We are also interested in identifying neurophysiological indicators of sensitivity to the social environment and vulnerability to stress, with a particular emphasis on oxytocin and heart rate variability. The overarching goal of these experimental, longitudinal and treatment studies is to develop and optimize psychosocial interventions to improve resilience to chronic stress.

Our work is funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Quebec Network for Suicide, Mood Disorders and Related Disorders, the Canadian Lung Association, and the PERFORM Centre

Current studies examine:

-The moderating role of dyadic coping in the association between spousal control behaviour and changes in diet and physical activity among cohabiting couples. Funded by SSHRC.

-The impact of a couples-based lifestyle intervention on healthy eating, physical activity, and dyadic coping among older adults. Funded by the Institut de Gériatrie de Montréal and the PERFORM Centre. 

-The impact of cognitive-behavioural treatment on stress-related insomnia. Funded by CIHR.



Representative Publications

*Caldwell, W., da Estrela, C., MacNeil, S., Gouin,J.-P. (2019). Association between romantic partners’ brooding rumination and negative marital exchanges is moderated by respiratory sinus arrhythmia: An actor-partner interdependence model. Journal of Family Psychology.

*Gouin, J.P. Caldwell, W., MacNeil, S., Roddick, C. (2018). Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Reactivity Moderates Within-Person Associations of Daily Capitalization with Positive Affect and Relationship Quality. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 1-22.

*Gouin,J.P., Zhou, Q.Q., Booij, L., Boivin M., Côté, S.M.,Hébert, M., I. Ouellet-Morin, M. Szyf, M., Tremblay, R.E., Turecki,G., and Vitaro, F. (2017). Associations among oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) DNA methylation in adulthood, exposure to early life adversity, and childhood trajectories of anxiousness. Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 7446.

*MacNeil, S., Deschenes, S., Caldwell, W., Brouillard,M., Dang-Vu, T.T., & Gouin, JP. (2017). High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability Reactivity and Trait Worry Interact to Predict The Development of Sleep Disturbances in Response to a Naturalistic Stressor. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 51(6): 912-924.

*Gouin, J.P., Scarcello, S., da Estrela, C. Paquin,C., & Barker, E.T. (2016). Dyadic Coping and Inflammation in the Contextof Chronic Stress. Health Psychology, 35(10), 1081-1084.

*Gouin, J.P.,Zhou, B., & Fitzpatrick, S. (2015). Social Integration Prospectively Predicts Changes in Heart Rate Variability Among Individuals Undergoing Migration Stress. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 49(2), 230-238.

*Gouin, J.P., Deschenes, S., & Dugas, M. (2014). Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia during Worry Forecasts Stress-Related Increases in Psychological Distress. Stress, 17(15), 416-422.

*Kiecolt-Glaser, J.K., Gouin, J.P., Glaser, R., Malarkey, W.B., Pang, N. (2011). Childhood Adversity Heightens the Impact of Later-Life Caregiving Stress on Telomere Length and Inflammation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 73(1), 16-22.

*Gouin, J.P., Carter, C.S., Pournajafi-Nazarloo, H., Glaser, R., Malarkey, W.,Loving, T., Stowell, J., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. (2010). Marital Behavior, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and Wound Healing. Psychoneuroendocrinology.35(7):1082-1090

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