The invention discloses a surface-emitting laser element, a surface-emitting laser array, an optical scanner device, and an image forming apparatus. The surface-emitting laser element includes an emission region configured to emit a laser beam and a high reflectance region including a first dielectric film having a first refractive index and a second dielectric film having a second refractive index differing from the first refractive index where the first dielectric film and the second dielectric film are stacked within the emission region to provide high reflectance. In the surface-emitting laser element, the high reflectance region is formed in a region including a central portion of the emission region and is configured to include shape anisotropy in two orthogonal directions in a plane in parallel with the emission region.