Published research

Guillont, M., Selover, M., Kaniušonytė, G., Laursen, B. (2025) What’s best about best friends: Higher-ranked friend nominations are more stable and more likely to be reciprocated than lower-ranked nominations. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254251396625

Leclerc Bédard, L.A., Kaniušonytė, G., & Laursen, B. (2025) Age differences in academic suasion: Friends are more influential during early adolescence than during late childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.0.a973947

Selover, M., Leggett-James, M.P., Kaniušonytė, G., Laursen, B. (2025) School structure explains age group differences in friend selection similarity. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Advance online publication.   https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025425131482

Leclerc Bedard, L. A., Leggett-James, M. P., Žukauskienė, R., Kaniušonytė, G., & Laursen, B. (2024). The Correlates and Consequences of Friendship Change and Friendlessness During Late Childhood and Early Adolescence. The Journal of Early Adolescence. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/027243162513431  

Katulis, G., Kaniušonytė, G., Laursen, B. (2025) Extending the healthy context paradox to nonintervention settings: Escalating problem behaviors among victimized social outliers. School Psychology, 40(4), 472-482. https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000662

Kaniušonytė, G., & Laursen, B. (2024) Maternal disapproval of friends in response to child conduct problems damages the peer status of pre- and early adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 66(2), 178-188. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14043

DeLay, D., Kaniušonytė, G., Žukauskienė, R. (2024) The social dynamics of fun: Can fun youth bring peers together and positively influence their friends? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 53, 386-396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01876-6

Katulis, G., Kaniušonytė, G., & Laursen, B. (2023). Positive classroom climate buffers against increases in loneliness arising from shyness, rejection sensitivity and emotional reactivity. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 14:1081989. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1081989

Faur, S., Leggett-James, M.P., Kaniušonytė, G., Žukauskienė, R., & Laursen, B. (2023). Perceptions of relationship quality that predict friendship dissolution during childhood and adolescence: Social support matters more than negativity. Developmental Psychology, 60(3). https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001676

Leggett-James, M.P., Faur, S., Kaniušonytė, G., Žukauskienė, R., Laursen, B. (2023). The perils of not being attractive or athletic: pathways to adolescent adjustment difficulties through escalating unpopularity. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 52, 2231–2242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01835-1

Kaniušonytė, G., Žukauskienė, R., Bakaitytė, A., & Laursen, B. (2022). Perceived maternal disapproval of friends: How mothers shape and respond to child and friend adjustment problems. Frontiers in Psychology. 13:1015506. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1015506