News
Discover the latest achievements of the Laursen Lab.
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:
Laursen Lab Featured on The Last Show with David Cooper:
Laursen Lab Featured in US News and World Report:
Congratulations to Madeleine Guillont for successfully defending her Master's Thesis, "Weight Concerns and Body Image Dissatisfaction Elicit Maternal Psychological Control through Escalating Appearance Anxiety Behaviors"! (Thesis Chair: Brett Laursen, Committee Members: David Bjorklund, Irem Korucu)
Congratulations to Molly Selover for successfully defending her Master's Thesis, "Poor Peer Relationships During Early Adolescence Amplify Bidirectional Pathways Between Body Dissatisfaction and Alcohol Misuse"! (Thesis Chair: Brett Laursen, Committee Members: David Bjorklund, Irem Korucu)
Brett Laursen was named among the top 2% of scientists in the annual Stanford-Elsevier rankings!
Goda Kaniušonytė, together with Brett Laursen, received funding from the Lithuanian Research Council to continue longitudinal research on adolescent friendships and susceptibility to peer influences NAVIGATE+ (Navigating Peer Pressure: Developmental Trajectories of Susceptibility to Peer Influence from Early to Late Adolescence)
New Book by Laursen Lab Alum:Ìý Ìýby Gilly Kahn, Ph.D.
Laursen Lab research featured in Scientific American:
Laursen Lab research Featured in Newsweek:
Laursen Lab research featured in US News & World Report:
Laursen Lab research featured in Huffpost:
Recent Student Publications
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*Sherrod, L., *Selover, M., Kahn, G., Kaniušonytė, G., & Laursen, B. (2026). The friends they have and the friends they want: Why friendship aspirations usually fail. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Advance online publication.
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*Selover, M., Leggett-James, M.P., Højen, A. Bleses, D. & Laursen, B. (2026). Solitary Screen Time Exacerbates Later Socioemotional Problems in Young Children with Oral Language Difficulties.ÌýResearch on Child and Adolescent PsychopathologyÌý54, 44 (2026).
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*Selover, M., *Leggett-James, M. P., & Laursen, B. (2025). School structure explains age group differences in friend selection similarity.ÌýInternational Journal of Behavioral Development.Ìý
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