I.  Professor James Cote

Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario

The title of the presentation to be presented at the Conference -
"Adolescent Psychology and the Sociology of Youth: Toward a Rapprochement"

James Côté is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario. He is founding editor of Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, Past President (2003-2005) of the Society for Research on Identity Formation (SRIF), currently serves as Vice-President for North America (2006-2010) on the International Sociological Association's Research Committee (34) on the Sociology of Youth. Dr. Côté has authored or co-authored several books and dozens of journal articles and book chapters on youth-related issues. His recent books include Ivory Tower Blues: A University System in Crisis (2007), Critical Youth Studies: A Canadian Focus (2006), and Identity Formation, Agency, and Culture: A Social Psychological Synthesis (2002). 

 II. Professor Constance A. Flanagan



Department of Agricultural and Extension Education, The Pennsylvania State University

The title of the presentation to be presented at the Conference -
"Political theories of adolescents"

Constance Flanagan is a professor of youth civic development in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education and co-director of the minor in Civic and Community Engagement at Penn State University. Her research concerns adolescents' theories of the ‘social contract', i.e., their views of the rights and responsibilities that bind members of a society together, and on age, ethnic, and class differences in these views and their correlates.  She is a former William T. Grant Scholar, a member of the MacArthur Foundation's Network on Transitions to Adulthood, a board member of CIRCLE and a fellow in the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Division 9 of the American Psychological Association. During the 2008-2009 academic year she will be a resident fellow at the Spencer Foundation in Chicago and a Fulbright scholar in Santiago, Chile.  Flanagan has served on the editorial boards of six journals and was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and of the volume, Youth Activism: An International Encyclopedia.  Her work has been funded by the NIH, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Jacobs, Annenberg, and W.T. Grant Foundations. 

 III. Professor Brett Laursen



Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University

The title of the presentation to be presented at the Conference -
"The Origins of Peer Homophily: A New Look at an Old Problem"

Brett Laursen is Professor of Psychology and Director of Graduate Training at Florida Atlantic University.  He received his Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota.
Prof. Laursen has served as a Visiting Research Professor in the Department of Psychology and as a Research Scientist in the Center of Excellence for Human Development and Its Risk Factors, at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, where he holds the position of Docent Professor of Social Developmental Psychology.  He is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association (Division 7, Developmental), a Fellow and Charter Member of the Association for Psychological Science, and the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Örebro University, Sweden.  He is currently Methods and Measures Editor for the International Journal of Behavioral Development.
Prof. Laursen's research concerns adolescent relationships with parents, friends, and romantic partners, and the influence of these relationships on individual social and academic adjustment.  His work has been supported by grants from the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Jacobs Foundation, and most recently, the US National Institute of Mental Health.  Prof. Laursen has co-edited several books, the latest (with Kenneth H. Rubin and William M. Bukowski) entitled, Handbook of Peer Interactions, Relationships, and Groups (2009, Guilford).

IV. Professor Margaret Kerr



Center for Developmental Research, Orebro University

Margaret Kerr is Professor of Psychology and has been Co-director of the Center for Developmental Research since its inception in 1998. Her primary research interest is the development of problem behaviors, including delinquency and depression. Adolescent development is of special interest, although her research covers the lifespan from birth to midlife. Prof. Kerr earned her Ph.D. in the Psychology Department at Cornell University, U.S.A., and then completed a post-doctoral research fellowship with Richard Tremblay at the University of Montreal, Canada. She is presently serving as associate editor for the Journal of Research on Adolescence. In recent years, she has served as national editor for Scandinavian Journal of Psychology and as newsletter editor and executive council member for the European Association for Research on Adolescence. In 2003 she received an Excellent Researcher award from the Swedish Research Council. Together with Professor Håkan Stattin, she has conducted several longitudinal studies, including a 5-year study of all youths between 10 and 18 years in an entire community. Currently, Prof. Kerr's research interests include: the role of behavioral inhibition in the life course; adolescents' choices of developmental contexts; peer influences in different contexts; parents' family management strategies and how they are influenced by children's characteristics and behaviors; and parent-child interactions and their roles in youth adjustment.


and Professor Hakan Stattin



Center for Developmental Research, Orebro University 

He is: past president of European Association of Research on Adolescence (EARA); at the editorial board of International Journal of Behavioral Development, Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, and European Journal of Criminology; in the expert committé of the Public Health Institute; member of the board of the National Crime Prevention Council; in the scientific advisory board of The National Board of Health and Welfare; at the scientific board of the Swedish Psychologist Association; in the National Committé of Psychology at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; reviewer for the Research Council of Norway; member of the strategic advisory board of the Danish National Institute of Social Research; Reviewer for William T. Grant Foundation.
His research interests are the developmental background of antisocial behavior; the role of pubertal maturation in adolescent development; "healthy functioning" and protective factors; crime prevention; parent-child interactions & communication.

The title of the presentation to be presented at the Conference -
"Parenting and Youth Problem Behavior: Challenging Established Views"

Due to health problems the lecture by Prof. M. Kerr and Prof. H. Stattin has been cancelled and will be replaced by Lauree Tilton-Weaver and Sheila Marshall

 V. Professor Marcel van Aken



Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University

The title of the presentation to be presented at the Conference -
"Personality development before, during and after adolescence"

Marcel A.G. van Aken (1958) studied developmental psychology and in 1991 defended his PhD thesis at the University of Nijmegen, on a longitudinal study on the development of competence. In 1990 he accepted a post-doc position at the Max-Planck-Institute for psychological research in Munich, Germany. There he worked at the division for Developmental Psychology (director prof.dr. Weinert), mainly on the LOGIC-study, a multidomain longitudinal study on the development of individual competencies. Together with colleagues from the LOGIC-project, he conducted several longitudinal studies on social and personality development.
In 1993, he returned to the Netherlands. After several years as an assistant and later associate professor at the University of Nijmegen, he moved to Utrecht University in 2001. Since 2003, he is full professor and chair of the Department of Developmental Psychology at Utrecht University. His research focuses on the development of psychosocial problems in children, more particular the way that transactional relations between personality characteristics of children and elements of their social relationships with parents and peers may result in either competence or maladaptation.
Marcel van Aken and his co-workers have published numerous articles on social and personality development. He has also been involved in various international organizations and review committees. Recently, he has been treasurer/membership secretary of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, and momentarily he is editor of the journal of that society, the International Journal of Behavioral Development.

VI. Professor Niobe Way
 

Department of Applied Psychology, New York University

The title of the presentation to be presented at the Conference -
"Is growing up good for your health? An investigation of adolescent boys and their friendships"

Dr. Way received her doctorate from Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology. Her research interests focus on the social and emotional development of adolescents from diverse socio-economic and cultural contexts. She is also interested in how schools, families, and neighborhoods influence the developmental trajectories of children and adolescents. She has published numerous books and journal articles over the past decade. Her books include: "Everyday Courage: The Lives and Stories of Urban Teenagers" (NYU Press, 1998); "Urban Girls: Resisting Stereotypes, Creating Identities" (NYU press, 1996). Her co- authored book with Bonnie Leadbeater: "Growing up fast: Transitions to adulthood among inner city adolescent mothers" (Erlbaum Press, 2001) received the Best Book Award from the Society of Research on Adolescence (2002). Her most recent co-edited book is entitled: Adolescent Boys: Exploring Diverse cultures of boyhood (NYU Press, 2004). Her current projects focus on the social and emotional development of middle school students in New York City and in Nanjing, China. She is also completing a book, to be published by Harvard University Press, on the friendships of adolescent boys. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, The National Science Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, The Spencer Foundation, and by numerous other smaller foundations.