Laurel Raffington - Publications

Raffington, L. (2026). Academia is just a job. Nature Human Behaviour, 10(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02376-2

Willems, Y. E., Rezaki, A. D., Aikins, M., Bahl, A., Wu, Q., Belsky, D. W., & Raffington, L. (in press). Social determinants of health and epigenetic clocks: Meta-analysis of 140 studies. Nature Human Behaviour.

Xie, J. K., Caspi, A., Harris, K. M., Aiello, A., Harrington, H., Houts, R., Kositzke, C., Belsky, D. W., Raffington, L., Belsky, J., Ramrakha, S., Theodore, R. F., & Moffitt, T. E. (in press). Do children who develop faster go on to age faster in midlife? Psychological Science.

Zhou, Q., Liao, W., Allegrini, A. G., Rimfeld, K., Wertz, J., Morris, T. T., Raffington, L., Plomin, R., & Malanchini, M. (in press). From genetic disposition to academic achievement: The mediating role of non-cognitive skills across development. Nature Communications.

Aikins, M. A. N., Ansah, W., Goosby, B., & Raffington, L. (2025). Everywhere and every day: The impact of navigating racialization on Black German children's mental health. Frontiers in Public Health, 13, Article 1658945. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1658945

Aikins, M., Willems, Y., Fraemke, D., Mitchell, C., Goosby, B., & Raffington, L. (2025). Linked emergence of racial disparities in mental health and epigenetic biological aging across childhood and adolescence. Molecular Psychiatry, 30, 4296–4306. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03010-3

deSteiguer, A. J., Raffington, L., Sabhlok, A., Tanksley, P., Tucker-Drob, E. M., & Harden, K. P. (2025). Stability of aging- and cognition-related methylation profile scores across two waves in children and adolescents. Child Development, 96(3), 1189–1206. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14239

deSteiguer, A. J., Smith, T., Goode, J. A., Willems, Y. E., Schowe, A. M., Czamara, D., Mönkediek, B., Pahnke, C. K. L., Forstner, A. J., Binder, E. B., Schneper, L., Notterman, D. A., Tucker-Drob, E. M., Raffington, L., Mitchell, C., & Harden, K. P. (2025). Salivary DNA methylation and pubertal development in adolescents. Scientific Reports, 15, Article 35970. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-19588-1

Fraemke, D., Willems, Y. E., Okbay, A., Lindenberger, U., Zinn, S., Wagner, G., Richter, D., Harden, K. P., Tucker-Drob, E. M., Hertwig, R., Koellinger, P., & Raffington, L. (2025). Polygenic associations with educational attainment in East versus West Germany: Differences emerge after reunification. Psychological Science, 36(7), 559–573. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251350965

Tanksley, P. T., Brislin, S. J., Wertz, J., de Vlaming, R., Courchesne-Krak, N. S., Mallard, T. T., Raffington, L. L., Karlsson Linnér, R., Koellinger, P., Palmer, A. A., Sanchez-Roige, S., Waldman, I. D., Dick, D., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., & Harden, K. P. (2025). Do polygenic indices capture "direct" effects on child externalizing behavior problems? Within-family analyses in two longitudinal birth cohorts. Clinical Psychological Science, 13(2), 316–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026241260260

Wu, Q., Bosanac, M., Shokhirev, M. N., & Raffington, L. (2025). Probing buccal-customized epigenetic clocks to investigate socioeconomic and health disparities. GeroScience. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01907-z

Zarandooz, S., & Raffington, L. (2025). Applying blood-derived epigenetic algorithms to saliva: Cross-tissue similarity of DNA-methylation indices of aging, physiology, and cognition. Clinical Epigenetics, 17, Article 61. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-025-01868-2

Aikins, M. A. N., Willems, Y. E., Fraemke, D., & Raffington, L. (2024). Beyond a shared history: A biosocial perspective on sociogenomics and racism in Germany. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 76, 573–602. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11577-024-00934-6

Falck, J., Zhang, L., Raffington, L., Mohn, J. J., Triesch, J., Heim, C., & Shing, Y. L. (2024). Hippocampus and striatum show distinct contributions to longitudinal changes in value-based learning in middle childhood. eLife, 12, Article RP89483. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.89483.3

Malanchini, M., Allegrini, A. G., Nivard, M. G., Biroli, P., Rimfeld, K., Cheesman, R., von Stumm, S., Demange, P. A., van Bergen, E., Grotzinger, A. D., Raffington, L., De la Fuente, J., Pingault, J.-B., Tucker-Drob, E. M., Harden, K. P., & Plomin, R. (2024). Genetic associations between non-cognitive skills and academic achievement over development. Nature Human Behaviour, 8, 2034–2046. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01967-9

Raffington, L. (2024). Utilizing epigenetics to study the shared nature of development and biological aging across the lifespan. npj Science of Learning, 9, Article 24. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-024-00239-5

Raffington, L., Tanksley, P. T., Vinnik, L., Sabhlok, A., Patterson, M. W., Mallard, T., Malanchini, M., Ayorech, Z., Tucker-Drob, E. M., & Harden, K. P. (2024). Associations of DNA-methylation measures of biological aging with social disparities in child and adolescent mental health. Clinical Psychological Science, 12(4), 551–562. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026231186802

Willems, Y. E., deSteiguer, A., Tanksley, P. T., Vinnik, L., Fraemke, D., Okbay, A., Richter, D., Wagner, G. G., Hertwig, R., Koellinger, P., Tucker-Drob, E. M., Harden, K. P., & Raffington, L. (2024). Self-control is associated with health-relevant disparities in buccal DNA-methylation measures of biological aging in older adults. Clinical Epigenetics, 16, Article 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-024-01637-7

Willems, Y. E., Raffington, L., Ligthart, L., Pool, R., Hottenga, J. J., Finkenauer, C., & Bartels, M. (2024). No gene by stressful life events interaction on individual differences in adults’ self-control. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, Article 1388264. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1388264

Raffington, L., Schneper, L., Mallard, T., Fisher, J., Vinnik, L., Hollis-Hansen, K., Notterman, D. A., Tucker-Drob, E. M., Mitchell, C., & Harden, K. P. (2023). Salivary epigenetic measures of body mass index and social determinants of health across childhood and adolescence. JAMA Pediatrics, 177(10), 1047–1054. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.3017