About

Jennifer Lansford is the S. Malcolm Gillis Distinguished Research Professor of Public Policy and a Research Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. She has been conducting in-depth research on children and families in nine countries around the world. During the pandemic, her research focus expanded to explore how COVID-19 relates to young people and their parents' mental health. She is also the Director of the Center for Child and Family Policy and an affiliate of the Duke Global Health Institute and the Center for Child and Family Policy.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Political Science
• Clinical psychology
• Medicine
• Social psychology
• Social Science
• Sociology
• Psychiatry
• Internal medicine
• Demography
• Public relations
• Anthropology

Selected publications

• A Longitudinal Study of Parental Solicitation, Rule-Setting, and Psychological Control as Predictors of Adolescent Disclosure across More Individualistic and More Collectivistic Countries

  Journal of Youth and Adolescence · 2026-01-07

  articleOpen access

  Although autonomy-relevant parenting practices (solicitation, rule-setting, and psychological control) have been linked to adolescent disclosure, little is known about how these practices operate across cultural contexts. Existing studies often examined these practices in isolation or relied on cross-sectional designs, limiting understanding of their unique relations over time. This study examined these associations longitudinally across eight countries differing in average individualism and collectivism, focusing on the mediating role of adolescents’ perceptions of parental warmth, neglect, and overcontrol. Participants were 1,215 adolescents (50.3% girls) assessed at ages 13, 15, and 16. Perceived psychological control predicted greater perceived neglect and overcontrol, and perceived overcontrol, in turn, significantly predicted lower disclosure; this indirect effect was significant. Neither solicitation nor rule-setting predicted disclosure over time. However, when focusing only on voluntary disclosure (excluding secrecy items), solicitation predicted greater disclosure. Findings highlight the differential impact of parenting practices on disclosure over time, with psychological control as a risk factor and solicitation potentially facilitating disclosure depending on its measurement.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Positive youth development from early adolescence to young adulthood in nine countries: Intercepts, trajectories, and associations with parental warmth and behavioral control

  Journal of Research on Adolescence · 2026-05-04

  articleOpen access

  This longitudinal study concerns initial levels, trajectories of growth, and associations of positive youth development (PYD) with parental warmth and behavioral control from early adolescence to young adulthood. Participants included 1338 adolescents (M = 13.25, SD = 1.04, years; 50% girls) from nine countries trichotomized by income level based on World Bank groupings of economies as well as cultural, sociological, and psychological considerations. Composite measures of PYD at ages 13, 15, 16, 18, and 21 were created from adolescent-report EPOCH dimensions of engagement, perseverance, optimism, connectedness, and happiness. Adolescents reported a high average initial level of PYD (3.50 on a 4-point scale) at 13 years of age; however, developmental trajectories of each income-level group differed with little within-group variation across age. Multigroup latent growth curve models examined associations of family-level and parent-specific dimensions of warmth and control with intercepts and trajectories of PYD. Parental warmth was consistently associated with higher PYD intercepts in all three country income levels, whereas control showed varied effects. PYD followed similar trajectory slopes across the three country income levels; parental warmth was consistently associated with growth, whereas parental control showed nuanced associations with parent and country. Warmth appears to act as a common protective correlate of adolescent PYD, whereas control appears to constitute a protective correlate in some cultural contexts but a risk correlate in other cultural contexts.

  PublisherDOI

• Internalizing and Externalizing Trajectories in Eight Countries: The Role of Environmental Sensitivity, Positive Parenting, and Psychological Control

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Socialized into Knowing: Gender Differences in Children's Knowledge of Parental Backgrounds as Early Relational Labor Across 45 Nations

  Research Square · 2026-01-19 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dimensions of Deprivation and Threat, Psychopathology, and Potential Mediators: A Multi-Year Longitudinal Analysis

  UNC Libraries · 2026-03-25

  articleOpen access

  Prior research demonstrates a link between exposure to childhood adversity and psychopathology later in development. However, work on mechanisms linking adversity to psychopathology fails to account for specificity in these pathways across different types of adversity. Here, we test a conceptual model that distinguishes deprivation and threat as distinct forms of childhood adversity with different pathways to psychopathology. Deprivation involves an absence of inputs from the environment, such as cognitive and social stimulation, that influence psychopathology by altering cognitive development, such as verbal abilities. Threat includes experiences involving harm or threat of harm that increase risk for psychopathology through disruptions in social-emotional processing. We test the prediction that deprivation, but not threat, increases risk for psychopathology through altered verbal abilities. Data were drawn from the Child Development Project (N = 585), which followed children for over a decade. We analyze data from assessment points at age 5, 6, 14, and 17 years. Mothers completed interviews at age 5 and 6 on exposure to threat and deprivation experiences. Youth verbal abilities were assessed at age 14. At age 17, mothers reported on child psychopathology. A path analysis model tested longitudinal paths to internalizing and externalizing problems from experiences of deprivation and threat. Consistent with predictions, deprivation was associated with risk for externalizing problems via effects on verbal abilities at age 14. Threat was associated longitudinally with both internalizing and externalizing problems, but these effects were not mediated by verbal abilities. Results suggest that unique developmental mechanisms link different forms of adversity with psychopathology.

  PublisherDOI

• Future Orientation in Adolescents: Development and the Roles of Parenting in Different Income Countries

  Journal of Youth and Adolescence · 2025-11-25 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Future orientation – the ability to envision and plan for the future – is a crucial task during adolescence. However, little is known about how adolescents’ future orientation develops, how it is influenced by parenting dimensions, and how it varies across countries with different income levels and cultural values. This longitudinal study addresses this gap by exploring how parents’ monitoring, family obligations, individualism, collectivism, and conformity influence future orientation. The sample is composed of 1,086 adolescents (50.5% females) at ages 10, 14, 17, and 20 (mean age at study time 1 = 10.8, SD = 0.69) and their 1,071 parents (85% mothers; mean age at study time 1 = 39.4, SD = 6.8), divided into high-income (Italy, the United States), upper-middle-income (Colombia, Thailand), and lower-middle-income countries (Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines). Full information maximum likelihood multigroup latent growth curve models revealed that adolescents’ future orientation trajectories are nonlinear, that family obligations and conformity values are the parenting dimensions more strongly related to future orientation, and differences across broader economic and cultural contexts. This study clarifies the role of parental monitoring, family obligations, individualism, collectivism, and conformity values in shaping adolescents’ future orientation across cultures, highlighting the importance of responsive parenting and balanced family obligations for family-focused policies and programs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Parent–adolescent discrepancies in perceptions of parental warmth: Cross‐cultural differences and longitudinal associations with internalizing symptoms

  Journal of Research on Adolescence · 2025-10-31 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Research suggests that adolescents often perceive parental behaviors-such as expressions of warmth and affection-differently than their parents do. These parent-adolescent discrepancies offer meaningful insight into family functioning during adolescence and adolescent mental health, though existing findings remain mixed. Grounded in interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory), this study investigates longitudinal, bidirectional associations between parent-adolescent discrepancies in perceived parental warmth and adolescent internalizing symptoms. The sample included 1219 parent-adolescent dyads (both mothers and fathers) from 12 cultural groups across 9countries, followed across three time points spanning 5 years, with children's mean age being 10.72 years (SD = 0.67) at Wave 1, 13.19 years (SD = 0.90) at Wave 2, and 15.60 years (SD = 0.94) at Wave 3. The results of latent congruence models showed that mothers reported higher warmth than adolescents, whereas no significant discrepancies emerged between fathers and adolescents. The cross-sectional analyses indicated that a higher parent-adolescent discrepancy in parental warmth perceptions was linked to increased internalizing symptoms in adolescents and lower overall warmth perceived by parents and adolescents in the dyad. However, over the long term, marginal effects were observed only between greater internalizing symptoms in adolescents and lower overall warmth experienced, and vice versa. Additionally, some cross-cultural differences in the discrepancies between parents and adolescents were identified. These findings highlight the importance of congruence between parents' and adolescents' perceptions of parental warmth, which may play a critical role in reducing adolescent internalizing symptoms, at least in the short term. Future research should deepen these dynamics across different cultures and developmental stages to improve intervention strategies and strengthen family-based mental health support.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The relations among depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and optimism during adolescence: Longitudinal evidence from nine countries

  Development and Psychopathology · 2025-09-15

  articleOpen access

  Previous research has suggested bidirectional relations between depressive symptoms and both internal and external core beliefs (self-esteem and optimism, respectively) in adolescence. However, little work has examined the cultural commonality versus specificity of these developmental pathways in adolescence across diverse contexts. To address this gap, the current study traced bidirectional associations among depressive symptoms and two forms of core beliefs (self-esteem and optimism) in adolescents from 12 cultural groups in nine countries. Longitudinal data were collected from 1,090 adolescents at ages 15 and 17. Significant associations emerged between age 15 depressive symptoms and both age 17 core beliefs across all cultural groups except Sweden. No significant associations between age 15 core beliefs and age 17 depressive symptoms were found in the multigroup model. However, the pathways from core beliefs to depressive symptoms and from depressive symptoms to core beliefs did not significantly differ in strength. These findings provide cross-cultural evidence for the scar theory (depressive symptoms → core beliefs), but no clear support for the vulnerability theory (core beliefs → depressive symptoms), perhaps due to the measurement and stability of depression. These findings have implications for understanding the adolescent development of psychopathology and cognitions, such as core beliefs, across diverse cultures.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cross-Cultural Consortium on Irritability (C3I): An International Network for Research on Cultural Similarities and Differences in Irritability

  JAACAP Open · 2025-09-09 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Irritability is among the top reasons for youth mental health referrals worldwide. Cultural factors may affect how irritability manifests and develops; how it is experienced by youth and responded to by their caregivers; and how it is treated. However, the influences of cultural context on irritability have received little systematic investigation. The Cross-Cultural Consortium on Irritability (C3I; https://m.yale.edu/c3i ) is an international research network created to increase the limited evidence base on cross-cultural similarities and differences in irritability. By bringing together researchers worldwide, C3I provides an innovative and collaborative approach to address unmet needs and to explore novel research questions regarding cultural variation in irritability. In addition, combining resources and data around the globe helps to produce robust, reproducible, and generalizable results using large mega-data. One important initiative involves pooling existing datasets to support manuscript collaborations. The first 3 such projects focus on cross-cultural comparisons of the following irritability-related topics: boundaries of normative behavior; association with suicidality and self-harm; and informant effects. Another ongoing effort involves conceptualization of irritability across cultures. Other efforts include promoting projects of primary data collection using qualitative and quantitative methods, harmonization across measures, and facilitating/supporting community-based participatory research and engagement. C3I is an innovative, collaborative research structure to build a robust, reproducible, and generalizable evidence base on irritability and its characteristics, including sociocultural influences. This evidence base will facilitate recognition and assessment of irritability and, ultimately, inform development of effective, culturally informed prevention and intervention to benefit the largest possible number of youth and their families. This article describes the Cross-Cultural Consortium on Irritability (C3I), an international network aimed at understanding how culture shapes the presentation, experience, response to, and treatment of irritability in youth. By exploring these cultural influences, C3I seeks to improve recognition, assessment, and development of effective, culturally sensitive prevention and intervention strategies to benefit the largest possible number of youth and their families worldwide.

  PublisherDOI

• The impact of COVID-19 on the peer relationships of adolescents around the world: A rapid systematic review

  UNC Libraries · 2025-04-30

  articleOpen access

  The main objective of this rapid systematic review was to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted peer relationships for adolescents (10-25 years of age) around the globe. We focused on four indices of peer relationships: (1) loneliness, (2) social connectedness, (3) social support, and (4) social media use. In addition, we examined gender and age differences. Four databases (APA PsychInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched for articles published from January 2020 to November 2022. A total of 96 studies (cross-sectional: n = 66, longitudinal: n = 30, quantitative: n = 67, qualitative: n = 12, mixed-methods: n = 17) met our inclusion criteria (empirical observational studies with data on at least one of the indices of interest, cross-sectional data on COVID-19-related experiences or longitudinal data collected during the pandemic, age range of 10-25 years, typically developing adolescents). We extracted data and conducted a narrative synthesis. Findings suggest that COVID-19 disruptions negatively impacted peer relationships for youth. Most studies reported either an increase in loneliness over the course of the pandemic or a positive association between loneliness and COVID-19-related experiences. Similar findings were observed for increased social media use as a means of continued communication and connection. Fewer studies focused on social support but those that did reported a decrease or negative association with COVID-19-related experiences. Lastly, findings suggest a mixed impact on social connectedness, which might be due to the strengthening of closer ties and weakening of more distant relationships. Results for gender differences were mixed, and a systematic comparison of differences across ages was not possible. The heterogeneity in measures of COVID-19-related experiences as well as timing of data collection prevented a more nuanced examination of short and more long-term impacts.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Childhood, Adolescence, and Covid-Related Risk and Protective Factors in the Development of Adjustment in Early Adulthood Across Cultures

  NIH · $13.8M · 2007–2027

• NIH Grant R03TW008141

  NIH · $113k · 2012

Frequent coauthors

• Kenneth A. Dodge

  Center for Child and Family Health

  442 shared

• Marc H. Bornstein

  Institute for Fiscal Studies

  277 shared

• Ann T. Skinner

  Duke University

  226 shared

• Laurence Steinberg

  172 shared

• Suha M. Al‐Hassan

  Emirates College for Advanced Education

  168 shared

• Kirby Deater‐Deckard

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  163 shared

• Dario Bacchini

  University of Naples Federico II

  162 shared

• Concetta Pastorelli

  Sapienza University of Rome

  157 shared