Brett Laursen

Florida Atlantic University | FAU · Department of Psychology

The present study was designed to examine best friend influence over alcohol intoxication and truancy as a function of relative perceptions of friendship satisfaction. The participants were 700 adolescents (306 boys, 394 girls) who were involved in same-sex best friendships that were stable from one academic year to the next. Participants completed...

The present study examined whether adolescent friendships dissolve because of characteristics of friends, differences between friends, or both. Participants were 410 adolescents (201 boys, 209 girls; mean age = 13.20 years) who reported a total of 573 reciprocated friendships that originated in the seventh grade. We conducted discrete-time survival...

Objective: Inadequate parent supervision during the early adolescent years forecasts a host of conduct problems, including illicit alcohol consumption. Early pubertal maturation may exacerbate problems, because girls alienated from same-age peers seek the company of older, more mature youth. The current study examines overtime associations between...

Bullying and victimization are manifest in the peer social world, but have origins in the home. Uncertainty surrounds the mechanisms that convey problems between these settings. The present study describes the indirect transmission of hostility and coercion from parents to adolescent children through emotional dysregulation. In this model, derisive...

The present study examines whether characteristics of parents predict the stability of a child’s best friendships across the primary school years. Participants included 1,523 Finnish children (766 boys) who reported involvement in a total of 1,326 reciprocated friendship dyads in the 1st grade (M = 7.16 years old). At the onset of the study, mother...

Children with hearing loss often attend inclusive preschool classrooms aimed at improving their spoken language skills. Although preschool classrooms are fertile environments for vocal interaction with peers, little is known about the dyadic processes that influence children's speech to one another and foster their language abilities and how these...

The present study tests the hypothesis that friendships form on the basis of classroom seating proximity. Participants included 235 students (129 boys, 106 girls) in grades 3–5 (ages 8–11) who nominated friends at two time points (13–14 weeks apart). Teachers described seating arrangements. Concurrent analyses indicated that students sitting next t...

The present study tests the hypothesis that conflict amplifies longitudinal associations from aggressiveness and disruptiveness to classroom popularity. Participants were 356 (181 girls, 172 boys) Florida primary school students (ages 8–12). The results revealed that higher initial levels of peer-reported aggression, and disruptiveness were associa...

Higher accepted friends are known to influence the alcohol misuse of lower accepted friends, but not the reverse. The present study was designed to address the origins of this influence: Are higher accepted friends particularly influential or are lower accepted friends particularly susceptible to influence? To address this question, we introduce an...

This introduction outlines the goals for the special section on susceptibility to peer influence and articulates aims for the next research steps. We emphasize the difference between state and trait definitions of conformity, a distinction that helps clarify the contributions of specific research findings and delineates areas in need of greater res...

Two studies examine the convergence between measures of friendship and measures of liking in the assessment of friendship and peer acceptance. In the first study, 551 (301 boys and 250 girls) Canadian primary school children (ages 8–11) nominated friends and liked-most classmates. In the second study, 282 (127 boys and 155 girls) US primary school...

Peer influence is a twofold process that entails a behavior by an agent of influence that elicits conformity from the target of influence. Susceptibility describes the likelihood that conformity will occur. This review focuses on factors that shape susceptibility to peer influence. We argue that conformity has two distinct sources. In some instance...

The present study examines whether low body image satisfaction in school-aged children predicts decreasing academic engagement and the degree to which risk factors such as emotional problems, peer rejection, and low physical activity exacerbate this association. The participants (ages 8–10) were 353 children (177 boys, 176 girls) from a public scho...

Background: Most previous studies of teaching styles and reading skills have been cross-sectional. Longitudinal research is needed to clarify the direction of effects. The present longitudinal study examined the degree to which differences in teaching styles in the third grade predict the sixth-grade reading performance. The consistency of the find...

This replication study revisited conclusions from 2 previous investigations (Gauze, Bukowski, Aquan-Assee, & Sippola, 1996; van Aken & Asendorpf, 1997), which suggested that support from friends buffers against diminished self-esteem arising from poor quality relationships with mothers during the transition into adolescence. The aim of this replica...

Compelling evidence demonstrates that peer influence is a pervasive force during adolescence, one that shapes adap-tive and maladaptive attitudes and behaviors. This literature review focuses on factors that make adolescence a period of special vulnerability to peer influence. Herein, we advance the Influence-Compatibility Model, which integrates c...

The advent of the 21st Century brought a new interest in promoting Positive Youth Development and a renewed emphasis on understanding transactional relations between parenting and adolescent development. The present study examined conventional parent-driven pathways, which describe the putative role of parents in the formation of positive character...

This study examines whether adolescent personality moderates longitudinal associations between perceived parenting practices and changes in adolescent resilience. A community sample of 442 (224 boys, 218 girls) Lithuanian adolescents completed surveys twice, 1 year apart, beginning in Grade 11 (M = 17.1 years old). Adolescent self-reports described...

The present study examined the academic antecedents of declining peer social status. Participants included 545 (311 boys, 234 girls) Finnish students followed from the 1st through the 4th grade (ages 6–8 at outset). Each year, teachers completed assessments of academic task avoidance and students completed standardized measures of reading and math...

Although many studies show that peers influence the development of adolescent internalizing and externalizing difficulties, few have considered both internalizing and externalizing difficulties in the same study, and fewer have considered the contributions of parents. Using a longitudinal sample of 385 adolescents, the contributions of best friends...

The present study compares two methods for assessing peer influence: the longitudinal actor–partner interdependence model (L-APIM) and the longitudinal social network analysis (L-SNA) Model. The data were drawn from 1,995 (49% girls and 51% boys) third grade students ( M age = 9.68 years). From this sample, L-APIM ( n = 206 indistinguishable dyads...

This study examines the proposition that friend characteristics forecast changes in perceptions of relationship negativity. The participants (ages 9 to 11) were 240 pre- and young adolescents (114 boys, 126 girls) involved in 120 same-sex best friendships that were stable across a period of 4 to 12 weeks. Each friend described perceptions of negati...

Strong evidence indicates that student expectations of success in mathematics decline in middle school. The goal of the present study was to examine whether the expectations of teachers and the quality of the student-teacher relationship play a role in these declines. A total of 201 (86 boys, 115 girls) Latino/a students (M = 11.0 years) and their...

The pernicious consequences of parent psychological control are well-established. Parenting style classification schemes, however, typically exclude this behavioral practice , focusing instead on demandingness and responsiveness. The present study applies a person-oriented approach to the classification of parenting styles, taking into account psyc...

Objective: The present study concerns an overlooked trait indicator of childhood peer status: Being fun. The study is designed to identify the degree to which being fun is uniquely associated with the peer status variables of likeability and popularity. Method: Two studies of children in grades 4 to 6 (ages 9 to 12) are reported. The first involved...

Objective: The present study concerns an overlooked trait indicator of childhood peer status: Being fun. The study is designed to identify the degree to which being fun is uniquely associated with the peer status variables of likeability and popularity. Method: Two studies of children in grades 4 to 6 (ages 9 to 12) are reported. The first invol...

The present study examined whether the spread of jealousy and negative relationship perceptions between romantic partners varies as a function of boyfriend and girlfriend internalizing symptoms. Participants included 152 emerging adults in 76 heterosexual romantic dyads. At least one partner was 17 years or older ( M = 19.52 years) at the outset. P...

The present study validates a new procedure that combines continuous measures of proximity (Ubisense) and vocalization (LENA) into measures of peer social interaction. The data were collected from 4 boys and 5 girls (ages 2–3 at the outset) on 8 separate days (3–4 hours per day) over the course of an academic year. Teacher reports of friendship wer...

The present study examines direct and indirect associations between perceptions of parenting and adolescent adjustment. We focus on self-esteem as an intervening variable. Participants included 446 girls and 471 boys ages 14 to 17 (M = 15.64) at the outset. A community sample of high school students was tracked for 3 consecutive years, completing a...

Introduction: Psychological factors like math interest and self-concept typically decline between late childhood and early adolescence; both are key to math achievement. The present study examined the reciprocal interplay between math interest and self-concept across the transition into middle school, and whether associations are moderated by succ...

Resource Control Theory (Hawley, 1999) posits a group of bistrategic popular youth who attain status through coercive strategies while mitigating fallout via prosociality. This study identifies and distinguishes this bistrategic popular group from other popularity types, tracing the adjustment correlates of each. Adolescent participants (288 girls,...

Human observations can only capture a portion of ongoing classroom social activity, and are not ideal for understanding how children’s interactions are spatially structured. Here we demonstrate how social interaction can be investigated by modeling automated continuous measurements of children’s location and movement using a commercial system based...

A new methodology for continuous measurement of classroom interactions

This study examined longitudinal associations between externalizing symptoms and friendship quality among 116 adolescents and their same‐sex, same‐grade best friends (60.3% female). At the outset of the study, participants were in the sixth or seventh grades (M = 11.72 years). For two consecutive years, participants provided self‐reports of externa...

The aim of this study was to empirically consolidate previous friendship measures in order to identify a set of items to include in a tool for assessing positive and negative qualities of adolescents’ friendships. Existing self-report measures were identified and 91 items were selected from the measures. Following a pilot study undertaken to reduce...

This study examined the degree to which internalizing symptoms predict adolescent friendship instability. A total of 397 adolescents identified 499 same‐sex reciprocated friendships that originated in the seventh grade (M = 13.18 years). Discrete‐time survival analyses were conducted with Grade 7 peer, teacher, and self‐reports of internalizing sym...

Children from low SES backgrounds hear, on average, fewer words at home than those from high SES backgrounds. This word gap is associated with widening achievement differences in children’s language abilities and school readiness. However relatively little is known about adult and child speech in childcare settings, in which approximately 30% of Am...

The relationship between time and the number of vocalizations children heard from their peers (log per hour averages). Error bands represent standard error of the mean. Each point represents 1 recording day for 1 child. (PDF)

The relationship between children’s vocalizations and conversational turns (A) and peer vocalizations (B). All vocalizations and turn-taking values are log per hour averages. Error bands represent standard error of the mean. Each point represents 1 recording day for 1 child. (PDF)

This study examined age-related changes in friend similarity on delinquency to determine whether deviant behavior homophily peaks during mid-adolescence. A community sample of 1,663 male and 1,826 female Swedish youth from Grade 5 (M = 11.21 years) to Grade 10 (M = 16.25 years) provided self-reports of delinquency. Friendships were identified from...

We examined differential outcomes related to two distinct motivations for withdrawal (preference for solitude and shyness) as well as the possibility that support from important others (mothers, fathers, and best friends) attenuate any such links. Adolescents (159 males, 171 females) reported on their motivations to withdraw, internalizing symptoms...

The definitive handbook on peer relations has now been significantly revised with 55% new material. Bringing together leading authorities, this volume presents cutting-edge research on the dynamics of peer interactions, their impact on multiple aspects of social development, and the causes and consequences of peer difficulties. From friendships and...

Background Using a longitudinal twin design and a latent growth curve/autoregressive approach, this study examined the genetic–environmental architecture of substance use across adolescence. Methods Self-reports of substance use (i.e. alcohol, marijuana) were collected at ages 13, 14, 15, and 17 years from 476 twin pairs (475 boys, 477 girls) livi...

This longitudinal study from Grades 1 to 4 investigated (a) the extent to which children select peers based on similarity in reading skills and (b) the extent to which children are influenced by the level of their peers’ reading skills. The sample consisted of 1003 Finnish children in Grades 1–4, for whom reading fluency and comprehension were asse...

Similarity is central to friendship. The origins of homophily (love of the same) between friends are varied, but they all serve the same purpose: fostering compatibility and maintaining the rewards of affiliation. Interpersonal attraction is grounded on similarity. Similar individuals have much in common and find it easy to get along. Friends are s...

This investigation was designed to identify dyadic differences in mother-adolescent conflict. In 2 studies (N = 131 and N = 147), adolescents (M = 13.88 and 14.65 years old) described the number of disagreements with mothers during the previous (1 or 3) days, their affective intensity, and perceptions of negativity in the relationship. Cluster anal...

Although personality is a powerful predictor of adjustment, its potential moderating effects have been less studied in youth. This investigation examined why some youth are more susceptible to the negative consequences of rejection sensitivity than others. Two separate studies tested the hypothesis that agreeableness moderates the links between rej...

This investigation examines the spread of problem behaviors (substance use and delinquency) between twin siblings. A sample of 628 twins (151 male twin pairs and 163 female twin pairs) drawn from the Quebec Newborn Twin Study completed inventories describing delinquency and substance use at ages 13, 14, and 15. A 3-wave longitudinal actor–partner i...

The influence of parental beliefs and behaviors on children’s math confidence and performance is well documented, but few studies examine these associations over time, or in large samples of Latino/a families. This study used longitudinal data from 247 (114 sons and 133 daughters) mother-child dyads to examine whether maternal math gender stereotyp...

Youth aggression is a serious global issue, but research identifying personality traits associated with aggression has focused on adults. Little is known about whether similar associations exist during adolescence; even less is known about these associations across cultures. This study examined links between personality and physical aggression in U...

Mothers and adolescents hold distinct albeit correlated views of their relationship and of one another. The present study focuses on disentangling these independent views. Concurrent associations between maternal psychological control and children's adjustment are examined at two time points in order to identify the degree to which associations ref...

This study investigated friend influence over mathematics achievement in 202 same-sex friendship dyads (106 girl dyads). Participants were in the third grade (around age 9) at the outset. Each friend completed a questionnaire describing interest in mathematics and a standardized mathematical reasoning assessment. Peer nominations provided a measure...

The study of conflict processes often focuses on the manner in which disagreements are resolved, such that relationship deterioration is a product of the failure to negotiate. However, conflict management tactics may not be the most salient feature of parent–adolescent conflicts because these relationships are obligatory, with power unevenly distri...

This longitudinal study, conducted among a sample of Finnish primary-school children, examined the proposition that a single high-quality relationship (either with a teacher or a parent) can buffer against adjustment problems. Teachers rated the externalizing problems and prosocial behaviors of 378 children in Grade 1 and again in Grade 2. Relation...

This study used a genetically controlled design to examine the direction and the magnitude of effects in the over-time associations between perceived relationship quality with mothers and adolescent maladjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms and delinquency). A total of 163 monozygotic (MZ) twins pairs (85 female pairs, 78 male pairs) completed quest...

Conflict is inherent in growth, and human development cannot proceed without conflict. Intrapersonal conflict reflects competing impulses and desires as well as incongruent information. The resolution of intrapersonal conflict shapes the individual's view of the self and the self's place in the world. Interpersonal conflict is a social episode mark...

This study tests the hypothesis that adolescents with romantic partners are less similar to their friends on rates of alcohol abuse than adolescents without romantic partners. Participants (662 girls, 574 boys) ranging in age from 12 to 19 years nominated friends and romantic partners, and completed a measure of alcohol abuse. In hierarchical linea...

This study was designed to investigate friend influence over mathematical reasoning in a sample of 374 children in 187 same-sex friend dyads (184 girls in 92 friendships; 190 boys in 95 friendships). Participants completed surveys that measured mathematical reasoning in the 3rd grade (approximately 9 years old) and 1 year later in the 4th grade (ap...

Glycemic control declines during adolescence, as youth with diabetes struggle with pubertal changes and a changing social world. The present study tests whether body image mediates longitudinal links between family climate and changes in adolescent glycemic control. Mediation was hypothesized for nondating adolescents but not for dating adolescents...

There is strong evidence that depression anticipates later drinking problems among adults. These associations have not been consistently documented during adolescence, perhaps because little attention has been given to individual differences in peer relationships, which are the primary setting for adolescent alcohol consumption. This study investig...

Friendships differ in terms of their quality and participants may or may not agree as to their perceptions of relationship quality. Two studies (N = 230 and 242) were conducted to identify distinct and replicable categories of friendship among young adolescents (M = 11.6 years old) using self and partner reports of relationship quality. Same-sex fr...

Youth aggression is a serious global issue linked with criminal offenses, substance abuse, and mental health disorders (Rothon et al., 2011). Agreeableness and neuroticism are the strongest personality predictors of aggression among adults (Miller & Lynam, 2001). Social-cognitive theories (Crick & Dodge, 1994) suggest they differentially predict ag...

Why have person-oriented approaches been slow to be embraced by developmental scholars? What is holding back the person-oriented approach? A personal odyssey through the field of person-oriented research illustrates the challenges that confront scholars who use the approach and those who are considering it. Five challenges are identified: (1) termi...

The present study examined sibling influence over reactive and proactive aggression in a sample of 452 same-sex twins (113 male dyads, 113 female dyads). Between and within siblings influence processes were examined as a function of relative levels of parental coercion and hostility to test the hypothesis that aggression contagion between twins occ...

This study tested 2 related hypotheses. The first holds that high co-rumination anticipates heightened internalizing problems. The second holds that positive relationships with friends exacerbate the risk for internalizing problems arising from co-rumination. A sample of MZ twins followed from birth (194 girls and 170 boys) completed (a) self-repor...

Friend influence over prosocial behaviour and delinquent behaviour was examined as a function of relative parental protectiveness in a community sample of Lithuanian high school students (M = 16.5 years old). Participants completed self-reports describing commitment to personal values, delinquent behaviours, prosocial behaviours, and perceived pare...

Two studies examine whether self-reports of interpersonal conflict differ as a function of how the question is asked. In Study 1, 56 U.S. college students (M = 20.7 years) completed different versions of a questionnaire, four times, at one week intervals. Participants reported more conflicts with the aid of memory prompts than without, an effect th...