A Longitudinal Study of Families Formed through Third-Party Assisted Reproduction: Mother-Child Relationships and Child Adjustment from Infancy to Adulthood

Autor/inn/en	Golombok, Susan; Jones, Catherine; Hall, Poppy; Foley, Sarah; Imrie, Susan; Jadva, Vasanti
Titel	A Longitudinal Study of Families Formed through Third-Party Assisted Reproduction: Mother-Child Relationships and Child Adjustment from Infancy to Adulthood
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 59 (2023) 6, S.1059-1073 (15 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Golombok, Susan)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/dev0001526
Schlagwörter	Mothers; Children; Parent Child Relationship; Birth; Disclosure; Psychological Patterns; Emotional Response; Young Adults; Donors; Well Being; Family Relationship; Age; Emotional Adjustment; Child Rearing; Control Groups; Behavior Problems; Child Behavior; Predictor Variables; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Mother; Mutter; Child; Kind; Kinder; Parents-child relationship; Parent-child-relation; Parent-child relationship; Eltern-Kind-Beziehung; Geburt; Emotionales Verhalten; Young adult; Junger Erwachsener; Well-being; Wellness; Wohlbefinden; Alter; Lebensalter; Emotionale Anpassung; Kindererziehung; Prädiktor
Abstract	The seventh phase of this longitudinal study investigated whether children born through third-party assisted reproduction experienced psychological problems, or difficulties in their relationship with their mothers, in early adulthood. The impact of disclosure of their biological origins, and quality of mother-child relationships from age 3 onward, were also examined. Sixty-five assisted reproduction families, including 22 surrogacy families, 17 egg donation families, and 26 sperm donation families, were compared with 52 unassisted conception families when the children were aged 20. Less than half of the mothers had completed tertiary education and less than 5% were from ethnic minority backgrounds. Standardized interviews and questionnaires were administered to mothers and young adults. There were no differences between assisted reproduction and unassisted conception families in mothers' or young adults' psychological well-being, or the quality of family relationships. However, within the gamete donation families, egg donation mothers reported less positive family relationships than sperm donation mothers, and young adults conceived by sperm donation reported poorer family communication than those conceived by egg donation. Young adults who learned about their biological origins before age 7 had less negative relationships with their mothers, and their mothers showed lower levels of anxiety and depression. Associations between parenting and child adjustment did not differ between assisted and unassisted reproduction families from ages 3 to 20. The findings suggest that the absence of a biological connection between children and their parents in assisted reproduction families does not interfere with the development of positive mother-child relationships or psychological adjustment in adulthood. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01