Matthew Zawadzki

Although it is widely known that stress contributes to poor health, the mechanisms underlying this effect are poorly understood. This research explores perseverative cognitions, such as rumination or worry, as a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy that can contribute to and extend stress responses, and ultimately explain how stress leads to poor health. Identification of perseverative cognitions as a mechanism to disease enables a better understanding of the differences between acute and chronic stress, and can inform interventions aimed at reducing stress and improving health and well-being.