News
Discover the latest achievements of the Laursen Lab.
Congratulations to Mary Page Leggett James!
- Mary Page successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Best friends and popular peers as sources of influence during late childhood and early adolescence.”
- Committee Chair: Brett Laursen; Committee Members: David Bjorklund, Erika Hoff, René Veenstra, and Irem Korucu
Congratulations to Laury-Ann Leclerc Bedard!
- Laury-Ann successfully defended her M.A. thesis entitled “Age-group Differences in Friend Influence over Academic Achievement and Physical Activity”
- Next year, Laury-Ann will join the clinical psychology doctoral program at the University of Ottawa!
Welcome Sophia Montejo!
- Sophia will join the Laursen Lab as a doctoral student in the Fall of 2025
- Sophia comes to us from the Honors Program at the University of South Florida
Congratulations to Brett Laursen who was selected as the winner of the 2024 International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award!
Laursen Lab research featured in Scientific American: Parents Labeling a Kid’s Friend a Bad Influence Can Backfire
New Book by Laursen Lab Alum: Allow Me to Interrupt by Gilly Kahn, Ph.D.
Laursen Lab research Featured in Newsweek: Cutting Off Children from Friends Can Make Behaviors Worse
Laursen Lab research featured in US News & World Report: Maternal Disapproval of Friends Backfires
Laursen Lab research featured in Huffpost: Don't Lke Your Child's Friends? Advice for Parents
Recent Student Publications
- *Leggett-James, M. P., *Yoho, M., & Laursen, B. (in press). The wrong stuff: Characteritics of youth involved in enemy relationships.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
- *Selover, M., *Leggett-James, M. P., & Laursen, B. (in press). School structure explains age group differences in friend selection similarity. International Journal of Behavioral Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254251314822
- *Faur., S., *Leggett-James, M. P., Kaniušonytė, G., Žukauskienė, R., & Laursen, B. (2024). Perceptions of relationship quality that predict friendship dissolution during childhood and adolescence: Social support matters more than negativity. Developmental Psychology, 60, 560-566. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001676
- *Leggett-James, M. P., & Laursen, B. (2024). More about being fun: Making friends to maximize social status. Journal of Personality, 92, 1438-1450. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12899
Laursen lab featured in the Wall Street Journal: How Children Use Conflict to Win Popularity
Congratulations to Brett Laursen!
On International Friendship Day (30 July), Brett was named a world expert on friends and is now ranked as the 3rd leading world expert on friendship. More details here: https://expertscape.com/ex/friends