Abstract
Increasing numbers of children are being born through egg donation and thus do not share a genetic relationship with their mother. Parent–infant relationship quality was examined in 85 egg donation families and a comparison group of 65 in vitro fertilization families (infant M = 11 months). Standardized interview and observational measures were used to assess mother–infant and father–infant relationship quality at the representational and behavioral levels. Few differences were found between family types in parents’ representations of the parent–infant relationship. Differences were found between family types in the observational assessment of mother–infant relationship quality, indicating less optimal interactions in egg donation families. Findings suggest that egg donation families function well in infancy overall, but there may be subtle yet meaningful differences in mother–infant interaction quality.
Highlights
Increasing numbers of children are being born through egg donation and do not share a genetic relationship with their mother
The Parent Development Interview (PDI) Parent Affective Experience variables were entered into a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)
Univariate tests revealed a significant difference between family types for confidence, F(1, 146) = 5.09, p = .03, d = À0.38, reflecting lower levels of confidence among egg donation mothers than in vitro fertilization (IVF) mothers
Summary
Increasing numbers of children are being born through egg donation and do not share a genetic relationship with their mother. 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, 2013; Golombok, Ilioi, Blake, Roman, & Jadva, 2017; Golombok, Jadva, Lycett, Murray, & MacCallum, 2005; Golombok et al, 2004, 2006, 2011). Both studies found egg donation families to be functioning well in terms of quality of parenting, parents’ psychological health, and child adjustment,
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