Social Stress and Health
Historical, systemic, and interpersonal stressors leave a lasting impact on the brain and body.
Exposure to social stress is the leading factor in health disparities between minoritized and majority groups. It is crucial to understand the mechanisms through which stress “gets under the skin” in order to develop effective interventions and treatments for targets of rejection and violence. I am interested in how various forms of social stress (e.g., social rejection, early life adversity, racial discrimination) affect emotion. I also focus on bringing equity and inclusion into science in partnership with other members of the Carolina Affective Science Lab.
Representative Work
+indicates shared first-authorship
Muscatell, K.M., Alvarez, G.M., Bonar, A.S., Cardenas, M., Galvan, M.J., Merrit, C.C., Starks, M.D. (in press) Neural and immune mechanisms linking racism and health. American Psychologist
Carolus, A.E.+, Bonar, A.S.+, Miller, A.B., Gruhn, M.A., Alvarez., G., Rodriguez-Thompson, A.M., Martin, S., Patel, K., Giletta, M., Hastings, P.D., Nock, M.K., Slavich, G.M., Rudolph, K.D., Prinstein, M.J., Lindquist, K.A., & Sheridan, M.A. (April 2023) Exposure to threat adversity and amygdala-prefrontal connectivity during emotion regulation: Exploring the role of emotional clarity. Poster presentation at the 2023 Society for Affective Science Conference (Long Beach, CA)