Sophie Zadeh

Single mothers by choice: Mother-child relationships and children's psychological adjustment.

Fifty-one solo mother families were compared with 52 two-parent families all with a 4–9-year-old child conceived by donor insemination. Standardized interview, observational and questionnaire measures of maternal wellbeing, mother–child relationships and child adjustment were administered to mothers, children and teachers. There were no differences in parenting quality between family types apart from lower mother–child conflict in solo mother families. Neither were there differences in child adjustment. Perceived financial difficulties, child’s gender, and parenting stress were associated with children’s adjustment problems in both family types. The findings suggest that solo motherhood, in itself, does not result in psychological problems for children.

Sperm donor regulation and disclosure intentions: Results from a nationwide multi-centre study in France

Gamete donation in Europe is not regulated by a common legal framework. Different laws regarding donor anonymity and remuneration exist in different countries. In France, gamete donation is characterized by a stable legal framework – the existing system of anonymous and non-remunerated donation remained unchanged following a period of public and parliamentary debate in 2011 – but little evidence is available concerning recipients’ views and experiences of gamete donation. This article describes findings from a questionnaire completed individually by 714 heterosexual couple members undergoing a donor conception procedure at one of 20 national fertility centres in France. Participants were invited to report their attitudes towards the French legal framework, their perceptions of the anonymous donor, and their intentions to disclose donor conception to their child and to other people. The majority of respondents (93%) approved of the current legal framework. Participants indicated that they thought about the sperm donor in ways that emphasized his act of donation without describing him as a specific individual. A majority (71%) also stated that they intended to tell their child about their donor conception. Given that this is the largest nationwide study of French recipients of donor sperm, the findings make an important contribution to the research evidence currently available about prospective parents’ perspectives in the increasingly uncommon context of donor anonymity in Europe.

The perspectives of adolescents conceived using surrogacy, egg or sperm donation

Abstract STUDY QUESTION What are the perspectives of adolescents conceived using surrogacy, egg or sperm donation regarding their conception and the third party involved? SUMMARY ANSWER The majority of adolescents described feeling indifferent about their conception, and yet simultaneously reported an interest in the third party involved, or were in contact with them. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY There is an assumption that children conceived through reproductive donation will feel negatively about their origins in adolescence. However, little is known about the views of adolescents who have been conceived through different types of reproductive donation. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION Forty-four adolescents, all of whom had been told about their conception in childhood, participated in a semi-structured interview as part of the sixth phase of a longitudinal, multi-method, multi-informant study of assisted reproduction families in the UK. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS All adolescents were aged 14 years, had been conceived using surrogacy (n = 22), egg donation (n = 13) or sperm donation (n = 9) to heterosexual couples, and varied in terms of their information about, and contact with, the third party involved in their conception. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in participants’ homes. Interviews were analysed qualitatively to determine adolescents’ perceptions of their conception, and their thoughts and feelings about the surrogate or donor involved. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Adolescents were found to feel positive (n = 7), indifferent (n = 32) or ambivalent (n = 5) about their conception. Amongst adolescents not in contact with the surrogate or donor, most were interested (n = 16) in the surrogate or donor, and others were ambivalent (n = 4), or not interested (n = 6) in them. Adolescents in contact with the surrogate or donor expressed positive (n = 14), ambivalent (n = 1) or negative (n = 1) feelings about them. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Of 56 adolescents invited to take part in the study, 47 consented to take part, giving a response rate of 84%. It was not possible to obtain information from adolescents who do not know about their conception. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS The findings contradict the assumption that children conceived through reproductive donation will feel negatively about their origins in adolescence and suggest that it may be helpful to draw a distinction between adolescents’ feelings about their conception in general, and their feelings about the surrogate or donor in particular. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This study was funded by the Wellcome Trust [097857/Z/11/Z]. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.