Support was obtained from a Sapienza Starting Grant for Research to the first author (grant number AR11715C77EB56B2). None of the authors has any conflict of interest.
Evidence is lacking about the factors that are pivotal in enhancing the exploration of surrogacy origins in children of gay fathers during middle childhood. The present study examined the separate and combined influences of child attachment security and parental scaffolding (i.e., fathers' attempts to accept, encourage, and emotionally support their children's expression of thoughts and feelings) during discussions about conception on children's exploration of their surrogacy origins in 30 Italian children born to gay fathers through gestational surrogacy. Within each family, both fatherchild dyads (n = 60) participated in a 5-minute videotaped conversation regarding an aspect of the child's conception when children were mean aged 8.3 years (t1). At this time, children were also administered the Security Scale Questionnaire to evaluate their attachment security. Approximately 18 months later (t2; M age = 9.9 years), children were interviewed about their surrogacy origins. Linear mixed models (LMMs) for longitudinal data indicated that, with higher levels of parental scaffolding, only children who perceived greater attachment security reported greater exploration of their surrogacy origins. The findings are the first to underscore the importance of conversations about surrogacy within the context of parent-child attachment relationships, as well as the importance of fathers sensitively supporting their children as they explore their origins during middle childhood. In doing so, it is expected that fathers will likely facilitate their children's positive integration of their surrogacy conception into a coherent sense of identity during adolescence.
The early identification of ruminative processes in children and early adolescents is particularly important to prevent the development of a stable ruminative style in later stages of development. The present study first aimed at validating a child-friendly tool, Kid Rumination Interview (KRI), to be used in a sample aged 7–12 years (n = 100; 50% females). Second, we hypothesized that maternal depression, family functioning and participants’ emotion regulation skills would be associated with children’ levels of rumination. Factor analysis on KRI scores yielded two main factors: personal life-related rumination and school-related rumination. Older and female participants showed higher tendencies to ruminate about school issues compared to their younger and male counterparts. A low-to-moderate correlation emerged between school-related rumination and child/early adolescent’s emotion regulation capacities. Mothers’ depressive rumination and mothers’ depressive symptoms were positively associated with children/early adolescents’ rumination about personal life and rumination about school issues. Conversely, an adequate and positive family functioning was negatively correlated with both school-related rumination and rumination about personal life. Hierarchical regression analyses pointed to a crucial role of maternal rumination and familiar rigidity in both types of rumination. Personal life-related rumination was also specifically predicted by maternal depression and family enmeshment, whereas school-related rumination was significantly associated with children/early adolescents’ emotional control and gender. Overall, the KRI appears as a promising tool to assess rumination in children/early adolescents. Results suggests partially different pathways to specific forms of ruminative thoughts
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