Projects
ProfessorÌýLaursenÌýis currently involved in several longitudinal projects, which focus, in one way or another, on influence within close relationships.
The first project concerns the transition from middle school to secondary school in a large community sample of Lithuanian youth, whose adjustment, friendships, and relationships with parents have been tracked for 8 consecutive years (up to 20 waves of data). The project is being conducted in collaboration with Professor Rita Žukauskienė of Mykolas Romeris University.
The second project is a partner to the first. A large group of elementary and middle school children from a school district whose population is representative of students in the state of Â̲èÖ±²¥ were tracked for 3 consecutive years (up to 8 waves of data). Within and between grades, changes socioemotional adjustment, changes in friends and changes in behaviors in school, were identified to better understand who is friends with whom and how influence is apportioned within the relationship. In most cases, parallel data among children of the same age were collected in Lithuania, permitting cross-national comparisons and the identification of shared relationship processes.
A final set of projects concerns home and school learning environments during the preschool and early primary school years. Of particular interest are child characteristics that moderate associations from parenting to school readiness and early school achievement. Several studies converging on this theme, many utilizing a randomized control trial design, are underway at the Trygfondens Center for Child Research (Aarhus University, Denmark) under the direction of Professor Dorthe Bleses.
Brett Laursen has received support from the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the US National Institute of Mental Health, the US National Science Foundation, Trygfonden, the Jacobs Foundation, and the European Social Fund under a grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuanian Research Council.