Children conceived by gamete donation: Psychological adjustment and mother-child relationships at age 7.

Abstract

An increasing number of babies are being born using donated sperm, where the child lacks a genetic link to the father, or donated eggs, where the child lacks a genetic link to the mother. This study examined the impact of telling children about their donor conception on mother-child relationships and children's psychological adjustment. Assessments of maternal positivity, maternal negativity, mother-child interaction and child adjustment were administered to 32 egg donation, 36 donor insemination and 54 natural conception families with a 7-year-old child. Although no differences were found for maternal negativity or child adjustment, mothers in nondisclosing gamete donation families showed less positive interaction than mothers in natural conception families suggesting families may benefit from openness about the child's genetic origins.Keywords gamete donation; egg donation; donor insemination; mother-child relationship; psychological adjustment Advances in reproductive medicine since the birth of the first baby through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1978 have resulted in more than 3 million children worldwide (International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technology, 2009). Many of these children are conceived using donated gametes (sperm or eggs), either through donor insemination or egg donation. Donor insemination refers to the insemination of a woman with the sperm of a man who is not her husband or partner. The resulting child is genetically related to the mother but not to the father who raises the child. Egg donation is like donor insemination in that the child is genetically related to only one parent, but in this case it is the mother with whom the child lacks a genetic link. With embryo donation, the child lacks a genetic link to both parents. In the case of intra-family donation, whereby gamete donation takes place between family members, the parent will have a partial genetic link to the child.Those who become parents through assisted reproductive procedures involving gamete donation tend not to tell their children about their donor conception and thus the majority of Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Susan Golombok, Centre for Family Research, Faculty of Politics Psychology Sociology and International Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3RF, U.K. seg42@cam.ac.uk. The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/pubs/journals/fam NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript children conceived in this way remain unaware that the...

Disclosure of donor conception, age of disclosure and the well-being of donor offspring

“…One wonders why they have done the study in the first place. A similar reasoning pattern can be found in Golombok et al (2011): 'No differences between family types were found for maternal negativity, showing that conflict and hostility between mothers and children is no higher in nondisclosing than disclosing gamete donation families or natural conception families. In addition, the children were found to be functioning well.'…”

Socioemotional Development in Changing Families

“…Phase 1 was conducted when the children were 1 year old , Phase 2 was conducted at Age 2 (Golombok, Jadva, Lycett, Murray, & MacCallum, 2005), Phase 3 was conducted at Age 3 , Phase 4 was conducted at Age 7 Golombok, Readings, Blake, Casey, Mellish, et al, 2011) and Phase 5 was conducted at Age 10 (Golombok, Blake, Casey, Roman, & Jadva, 2013). In the preschool years, the differences identified between family types pointed to more positive parent-child relationships in families created by gamete donation than in the comparison group of natural conception families, with no differences in the quality of family relationships according to whether the children lacked a genetic connection to the father (in the case of donor insemination) or the mother (in the case of egg donation) Golombok et al, 2005;.…”

“…In contrast to the more positive outcomes for the donor conception families in the preschool years, greater difficulties emerged at Age 7 Golombok, Readings, Blake, Casey, Mellish, et al, 2011), the age by which children show an understanding of biological inheritance (Gregg, Solomon, Johnson, Zaitchik, & Carey, 1996;Williams & Smith, 2010) and the meaning and implications of the absence of a biological connection to parents (Brodzinsky & Pinderhughes, 2002). The gamete (egg and sperm) -donation mothers who had kept their children's origins secret showed higher levels of emotional distress than did those who had been open with their children about their origins.…”

The attitudes of IVF patients treated in the Czech Republic towards informing children born after gamete donation

“…This is consistent with studies showing that children who do not know about their donor conception are doing as well as non-donorconceived children in terms of general emotional, social and behavioural development 17,35,36 . Likewise, other studies found no differences in the children's psychological well-being and the parent-child relationships between the disclosing and the non-disclosing families 14,37,38 . Our survey disclosed the attitudes of future parents on various aspects of "disclosure".…”