Abstract
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 father–child 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; Mage = 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.
Highlights
An increasing number of gay men are having children via surrogacy (Norton et al, 2013; Blake et al, 2017; Carneiro et al, 2017)—a practice by which a woman bears a child for the intended parent(s)
The present study investigated the following research question: Does child attachment security longitudinally moderate the influence of parental scaffolding during discussions about conception on children’s exploration of their surrogacy origins? It was expected that, when fathers were emotionally supportive and encouraged their child’s expression of feelings and questions related to conception, children who reported greater attachment security to their fathers would be more likely to explore their surrogacy origins than children with less secure attachment relationships
The set of investigated predictors was comprised of parental scaffolding during discussions with their child about their child’s conception, child attachment security, and children’s and fathers’ demographic information, as well as the additive and interactive effects of these variables
Summary
An increasing number of gay men are having children via surrogacy (Norton et al, 2013; Blake et al, 2017; Carneiro et al, 2017)—a practice by which a woman (the “surrogate”) bears a child for the intended parent(s). To date, to the best of our knowledge, only two studies have investigated the manner in which disclosure of surrogacy conception occurs in this family type (Blake et al, 2016; Carone et al, 2018a). These studies found that almost all children were told (to different degrees) before the age of four about the involvement of a woman who carried them in her belly, though more sophisticated aspects related to the conception (e.g., the presence of another woman who donated an egg or the identity of the father who used his sperm to conceive) tended to be disclosed only when the children were older. Despite the significant contribution of these studies, evidence is lacking about the factors that are pivotal in enhancing exploration of surrogacy origins in children of gay fathers during middle childhood
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