A longitudinal study of families formed through reproductive donation: Parent-adolescent relationships and adolescent adjustment at age 14.

Abstract

The aim of the 6th phase of this longitudinal study was to establish whether children born through assisted reproduction involving reproductive donation were at risk for psychological problems following the transition to adolescence at age 14 and, if so, to examine the nature of these problems and the mechanisms involved. Eighty-seven families formed through reproductive donation, including 32 donor insemination families, 27 egg donation families, and 28 surrogacy families, were compared with 54 natural conception families. Standardized interviews, questionnaires, and observational assessments of the quality of parent-adolescent relationships and adolescent adjustment were administered to mothers, adolescents, and teachers. The mothers in surrogacy families showed less negative parenting and reported greater acceptance of their adolescent children and fewer problems in family relationships as a whole compared with gamete donation mothers. In addition, less positive relationships were found between mothers and adolescents in egg donation families than in donor insemination families as rated by both mothers and adolescents. There were no differences between family types for the adolescents themselves in terms of adjustment problems, psychological well-being, and self-esteem. Longitudinal analyses showed no differences between family types in negative parenting from age 7 to age 14, and a weaker association between negative parenting and adjustment difficulties for gamete donation than natural conception and surrogacy families. The findings suggest that the absence of a genetic link between mothers and their children is associated with less positive mother-adolescent relationships whereas the absence of a gestational link does not have an adverse effect.

Parenting in new family forms

“…In the middle school years, by which time children show an awareness of biological inheritance [12,13] and of the meaning and implications of the absence of a biological connection to parents [14], the families continued to function well, although the reproductive donation families no longer showed more positive parent-child relationships than did the natural conception families and there was evidence of raised levels of psychological problems among mothers who had not been open with their children about their biological origins [15][16][17]. By adolescence, mothers in surrogacy families showed less negative parenting and reported greater acceptance of their adolescent children and fewer problems in family relationships as a whole compared to gamete donation mothers [18]. Within the gamete donation families, less positive relationships were found between mothers and adolescents in egg donation families than in donor insemination families.…”

Parenting and the Adjustment of Children Born to Gay Fathers Through Surrogacy

“…A longitudinal study of children in heterosexual families created through surrogacy found high levels of psychological adjustment in surrogacy children in the preschool years (Golombok, MacCallum, Murray, Lycett, & Jadva, 2006a;Golombok et al, 2006b;Golombok, Murray, Jadva, MacCallum, & Lycett, 2004) but raised levels of emotional and behavioral problems at age 7 (Golombok et al, 2011), the age at which children acquire an understanding of biological inheritance and the biological concept of family (Gregg, Solomon, Johnson, Zaitchik, & Carey, 1996;Williams & Smith, 2010) and of the meaning and implications of the absence of a biological connection to parents (Brodzinsky, 2011). Raised levels of emotional and behavioral problems among the surrogacy children were no longer apparent at age 10 (Golombok, Blake, Casey, Roman, & Jadva, 2013) or age 14 (Golombok, Ilioi, Blake, Roman, & Jadva, 2016).…”

Families Created by Egg Donation: Parent–Child Relationship Quality in Infancy

“…As disclosure intentions in infancy often do not match later disclosure decisions (Applegarth, Kaufman, Josephs-Sohan, Christos, & Rosenwaks, 2016), analyses of mother-infant relationship quality based on disclosure intentions were not considered useful at this developmental stage but may merit consideration at later stages. Similarly, when children in the UK Longitudinal Study of Assisted Reproduction Families were aged 14, egg donation mothers and adolescents were found to have poorer relationship quality than sperm donation mother-adolescent dyads when assessed using questionnaire measures of family relationship problems and parental acceptance/rejection (Golombok et al, 2017). Although no differences were found at age 14 in the observational assessment of mother-adolescent interaction quality, taken together with the present study, these findings may hint at a pattern of subtle differences indicating less optimal relationship quality between egg donation mothers and children in comparison to genetically related dyads.…”

“…The European Study of Assisted Reproduction Families compared egg donation, sperm donation, IVF, and adoptive families when children were aged 3–8 (Golombok, Murray, Brinsden, & Abdalla, ) and 12 years (Murray, MacCallum, & Golombok, ). The UK Longitudinal Study of Assisted Reproduction Families compared family functioning in egg donation, sperm donation, and natural conception families when children were aged 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, and 14 years (Golombok, Blake, Casey, Roman, & Jadva, ; Golombok, Ilioi, Blake, Roman, & Jadva, ; Golombok, Jadva, Lycett, Murray, & MacCallum, ; Golombok et al., , , ). Both studies found egg donation families to be functioning well in terms of quality of parenting, parents’ psychological health, and child adjustment, although both relied on parents’ interview data as a means of assessing parent–child relationship quality during early phases of the studies and included no observational assessments of parent–child interactions before age 7.…”