We are proud to announce that one of our researchers, Dr. Dominika Kwaśnicka, has been awarded a prestigious Stan Maes Early Career award granted by the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) for her contributions to the advancement of the psychological theory of behavior-change maintenance and design of behavioral interventions to improve populations’ health.
Research Focus
Dr. Kwaśnicka’s research interests revolve around maintenance of behavior change in public health. She focuses on exploring motives for behavior maintenance, habits, self-regulation, and coping with behavioral barriers. She is interested in determining how environment and social networks influence human behavior and how availability of physical and psychological resources shapes how people change and maintain healthy behaviors.
Examples of her novel behavior-change maintenance studies that she co-designed and led include the PATHS study - an online intervention platform for frontline healthcare professionals delivered in four hospitals in Australia (www.paths.org.au) and the Aussie-FIT physical activity intervention applied in two leading Australian Football League clubs.
Currently, Dr. Kwaśnicka is leading a research project on weight loss maintenance funded by the Foundation for Polish Science through the HOMING grant: https://www.wybieramyzdrowie.pl/.
Impact of Research
Dr. Kwaśnicka’s research is a step towards the integration of theories of behavior-change maintenance. Her projects show how theoretical assumptions can be tailored to individuals and how practitioners can apply them using current technologies.
She collaborates with world leading researchers, including academic colleagues from the UK, Netherlands, Portugal, France, Germany, and Australia. She has secured funding and delivered international research projects.
She has co-authored 21 peer-reviewed publications, presented her work in numerous international presentations and talks. She also teaches within-person methods and provides consultancy to fitness agencies and digital health organizations.
Service to the EHPS Society
Dr. Kwaśnicka is an active member of European Health Psychology Society (EHPS). She serves on editorial boards of the European Health Psychologist and Health Psychology Bulletin. She has worked as a Liaison Officer and grant reviewer. Currently she holds a position of Chair for EHPS Synergy. She is an active and regular participant and presenter at EHPS conferences and Synergy meetings. She also served as Session Chair for oral and poster presentations and a judge of posters for best poster prize. In 2018, she was a member of the EHPS Scientific Committee, reviewing abstracts for Health Behavior Change and Theory Models scientific track.
Stan Maes Early Career Award
The Stan Maes Early Career award recognizes outstanding research excellence, contributions made to the EHPS and/or contributions to professional practice made by EHPS members. The recipients of the award have an opportunity to present their work during the conference.
Award Recipient
Dominka Kwaśnicka, Ph.D. – Health Psychology Researcher. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Aberdeen and graduated with a Master’s of Science in Public Health and Health Services Research degree from Newcastle University, in Great Britain, where she also completed her doctoral studies. She is an active member of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) and Chair of the Synergy sub-committee of the EHPS. She is also Head Editor of the Practical Health Psychology blog, an online publication, addressed to healthcare practitioners, on the latest health psychology research and how to apply it in practice, published in 25 languages: www.practicalhealthpsychology.com. She is leading the Open Digital Health initiative www.opendigitalhealth.org that aims to encourage health scientists, practitioners, and technology developers to share evidence-based digital health tools to allow digital health to grow faster, be cheaper and more transparent across different countries.