Mother-Father Dyad Conflict Strategy Clusters: Implications for Emerging Adults.

Research has examined the different parenting styles that are present during emerging adulthood; however, less is known about potential parental conflict strategies that emerging adults may be experiencing during this developmental time period. Conflict strategies are conceptualized in the current study as parents' efforts to regulate, correct, or enforce a consequence in response to their emerging adult child's behavior. Previous research on discipline during childhood and adolescence has suggested the use of harsh discipline (e.g., use of physical force) leads to negative outcomes for children. Despite evidence linking harsh discipline methods to harmful outcomes in various developmental periods and suggested influence of parents in emerging adulthood, very little is known about how parents handle conflict with their emerging adult children. Thus, the present study investigated parental conflict strategies and mental health outcomes of emerging adults. Results revealed a significant parent-child gender interaction for non-violent strategies and psychological aggression. Moreover, results indicated that emerging adult children of parents who utilize similar levels of aggressive methods reported greater psychological problems. The findings from the current study underscore parents' use of conflict strategies when interacting with their emerging adult children, and further emphasize the importance of future research in this area.

Reward sensitivity and the course of bipolar disorder: A survival analysis in a treatment seeking sample.

OBJECTIVES: Reward sensitivity is suggested to be an influence on the onset and reoccurrence of bipolar disorder (BD) in observational longitudinal studies. The current study examined whether reward sensitivity predicted the recurrence of mood episodes in a treatment seeking sample. We also explored if reward sensitivity moderated treatment outcomes of psychosocial treatment. METHODS: Seventy-six euthymic adult patients with BD were randomly assigned to either Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Supportive Therapy (ST) and followed up for 2 years after completing therapy (Meyer and Hautzinger, 2012). The primary outcome measure was recurrence of mood episodes. The final multivariate Cox regression models included potential covariates, therapy conditions, BAS reward sensitivity, and the interaction between BAS and therapy conditions. RESULTS: BAS emerged as the only significant predictor of time till recurrence of mania, but not depression, but the overall model did not reach significance. There was no interaction between treatment and BAS reward sensitivity. Interestingly, a diagnosis of BD II predicted time till recurrence of depression. CONCLUSION: The main result regarding BAS partially confirms prior studies linking BAS and mania, but power and the specific sample seeking psychosocial treatment might have reduced the effect.